From Across the Borders
by Hopjesvla
Summary: Starting from the beginning, when the Mayans blow up the Son's weapon's depot, a strange young woman rolls into the life of the members of the club. Knowing her way with crime and money, she is bound to stir up trouble. Will a particular Scot be able to give her a safe place? Or are there secrets out there complicating things? Chibs/OC.
1. Chapter 1

Hello to you all! After watching Sons of Anarchy, I couldn't help but feel that my creativity was tingled and just _had_ to do something with it. I hope you all like the story I'm going to write down for y'all. It's gonna be a Chibs/OC story in the end.

I don't own anything, just Anne Miller, my OC for this story, from which POV this story is written. Enjoy! And let me know what you think!

* * *

Tumbling down the hill that led down the highway, she could feel the small stones and sharp grasses scratch against her skin, no doubt leaving marks. With a hitch in her breath, the girl had to pick herself up and keep on running. Getting caught wasn't the best idea and the sounds of hounds were getting closer. A sudden bright light blinded her for a moment as it stared her down in the face, her eyes big and full of panic.

"She's here! After her!" a Hispanic voice behind the flashlight shouted.

Scrambling to her feet, she quickly scanned her options: down the highway, where she'd be easily caught...or over the fence of the highway, to the other side where she had no idea what to expect. There wasn't a lot time to think though, as she heard a low rumble of vehicles approaching and the hounds closing in on her. With more energy than she thought she'd had, she sprinted over the empty highway, as fast as she could, before she climbed over the railing that was put there as some sort of lame protection. Inhaling sharply, she clamped onto that railing, as she caught sight of the steep abyss beneath her. She was higher than she'd expected… The slow yet calming sounds of water told her that the river was close.

"We're closing in on her!" the man with the flashlight yelled, almost triumphantly.

Gulping deeply, Anne Miller, looked down once again. It was either be caught or press on, no matter what would happen. Taking a deep breath, she quickly patted the wrapped envelopes under her jacket, making sure it was still there before she dropped herself on the gravel and released her hand from the rail, sliding down the steep dry abyss to the riverside below. Gravel, ground, small stones...they all pinched and pierced through her jeans as she sunk lower and lower. A deep rumble made her look up and catch sight of a gray van racing down the highway, that lazy made its way down to the riverside like a large snake. This was bad… if they were down at the river before her, it was all for naught, and she didn't feel like dying yet. Throwing all cautiousness out the window, she turned on her way down and let gravity do the rest: tumbling and rolling, picking up pace with every turn she made. The air was pressed from her lungs as up became down, left became right and she was certain she would have a concussion from all of this.

With a sudden halt, her tumbling ways ended on a stony shore before the river. In panic she pushed herself up, swaying from the disorientation and padding down her jacket again, searching for the wrapped envelope under her jacket. Luckily she wasn't a complete idiot and she had made sure to protect her paper cargo. Her toes became wet as she ran her way into the cold river. Better to be cold than dead…

The gray van stopped with screeching brakes as men came pouring out from it, shouting and with the metallic sound of cocking their guns. Anne gave a wry smile. By now she'd ventured far enough into the water that she was positive they wouldn't follow. The current tugged at her legs as she pushed on and on. She didn't know if she'd have the strength to brave the current to make it across, but she supposed there was only one way to find out. Releasing her feet from the sandy ground beneath her, she started to move her arms, gaze focused on the other side, trying to block out the sound of guns behind her. The cold sweet water washed against her skin, giving her goosebumps, before the whistling sound of bullets started to hit her ears. The projectiles ended up in the small waves of the river, muting their warning sounds. And Anne kept swimming. As long as she didn't think about it, didn't focus on it… She was gonna make it-

"SHIT!" she shouted with a scream that ended up muted by the river pulling her under. Blood poured from her shoulder that suddenly felt like it was on fire. With one hand she tried to touch the wound, before the current swept her away and all became dark.

* * *

A faint feeling took master of her, like someone was shaking her. Her shoulder hurt terribly and her memory was hazy. She felt like she'd been put under for longer than she should've been. Like a long night sleep after drinking a too much of strong beers.

"Wake up, girl." someone told her.

Pushing herself to open up her eyes, she had to squint against the burning sun. It was far too bright for her to take in. At her movement to hold up her head and trying to sit up, she was being pushed down again. Gently, yet with a strong message.

"Take it easy, darlin'. You just washed ashore and you're bleeding." the same voice told her.

Turning her head to the voice, she was greeted by a face with blue eyes and blonde locks adorning his face. Not a face she knew, and not the face that was looking for her.

Last night's memory passed her by fairly quickly and her breath stuck in her throat. She'd robbed some notorious motorcycle gang and it didn't went exactly well. In panic reaction she patted herself down the jacket, trying to see if her treasure was still there. Relieved the end of her fingers closed themselves over the edges of the envelope, she finally looked to her surroundings. Stony shore, dusty highways, it was like she was standing at the same place as yesterday… though there were some trees here.

"Where are we? You a cop?" she asked at the young man that had woken her before she winced in pain and grabbed at her shoulder, "Jesus!"

"Do I look like a cop to you, darlin'? Let's get you to a hospital, you need some medical attention." the blonde man said as she gestured to someone in the far back.

"No! I'm fine! I'm good!" she said hastily as she grabbed the man's arm and pulled herself up, with gritted teeth, "I can't go to a hospital. I'm a dead woman if you take me there, trust me."

"What's going on, Jackie boy?" the second man said, his voice a lot more gruff than the younger one's. There was an interesting accent sticking to it too. Anne looked up, her eyes squinting again because of the sun. Dark hair, dark sunglasses and scars on the sides of his mouth. She was sure there was an intriguing story behind those… Not that she was inclined to stick around to hear it.

"She's bleeding, doesn't want to go to a hospital." the one called 'Jackie boy' answered as he steadied Anne.

"Afraid she got no choice, brother… Got shot in the shoulder." the older one said as he walked around Anne, "What happened, lass?"

"None of your business." Anne said as she gritted her teeth again and leered at the men. She needed to finish this job, get paid and get out of this place.

Only now did she realize the kuttes on their backs, dark leather with white labels and a reaper on the back. A striking resemblance with the gang she'd robbed last night, though she didn't really remember their patch. It had been dark… Shit, was that the same gang?!

"Those kuttes… You with the Mayans?!" she asked as she backed away from the two, despite the pain in her shoulder, though never losing sight of them.

That surely caught their attention, looking at each other before turning their attention back to her again.

"You know the Mayans?" the blonde one asked as he stood up.

"Not really. But I'd rather not have a run in with them." Anne retorted as she kept clutching the package under her jacket.

"What you got there, lass?" the older one with scars asked her as he approached her.

"None of your business." she answered him again as she watched his every step with narrowed eyes, not sure what he was going to do. That made the older one grin a little, his scars twitching a little.

"Oh, she's feisty alright." he added.

The pain in her shoulder started to wear her down, make her energy drop. With half lidded eyes she looked at them in suspicion, wondering if it was safer to go back into the water behind her to die.

"Oh, she's gonna faint Jackie boy." the one with scars said suddenly as her head started spinning. Up went down again and the smooth stones of the shore touched her face again, though she wasn't awake to register it.

* * *

The soft beeping sound of a machine woke her from her dreamless slumber. Her head felt heavy but the pain from her shoulder had disappeared. Fluttering her eyes open, she took in the cold white room around her.

"Shit." she mumbled as she quickly looked at the garment the hospital had put on her. Where was her cargo?!

Pulling out the small tubes that had been carefully placed in her hand, she swung her legs over the bed and dropped herself on the cold ground, walking around the room and opening random cabinets. Passing a mirror above the sink of the bathroom, she stopped in her tracks and looked at her reflection. Green panicked eyes stared back at her, her dirty blonde hair half plastered to her face, half disheveled.

She was suddenly awoken by the door of her room opening. Yanking down the rail of the shower curtain, that was surprisingly loose for a hospital, she stepped outside the bathroom holding it like a baseball bat. Face scrounged up in a frown, she nearly growled at the ones stepping into the room: the young blonde man from before, a man that looked like a gorilla and the scarred man.

"You brought me to a hospital!? I told you, I didn't want it!" she said, with no intention to let down the shower curtain, "Where are my clothes!?"

"Whoa, darlin'. Why don't you put that down first huh? We're here to talk. I'm Jax Teller. This is Clay Morrow and that's Chibs. " the blonde man said, nodding to each man respectively. Anne looked at all three of them, trying to ignore the grins on all three faces. It must've been something to watch: a young woman threatening three gang members with nothing but her scrubs and a curtain rail.

"I don't give a rat's ass. Where are my clothes, _Jax Teller_?" she said, mimicking his name sarcastically, not putting down the curtain rail.

"As much I have to say you look better without them, luv, I daresay it ain't about the clothes, is it?" the scarred man, Chibs, told her.

The huge gorilla-like man, Clay Morrow, held something up for her. Her wrapped package.

"We could nick it before the police took away your clothes for inspection and research. You're welcome. I'm sure they want to talk to you, but before they do, I'm gonna ask some question's first. So sit down." Clay said as he took a step forward and wrenched the curtain rail from her hands.

With a sour expression, Anne sat herself down on her bed, trying to look as comfortable as she could get with them in the room. She couldn't help but switch her gaze to each and every one of them, before she sighed.

"What is this?" Clay said as he tossed the wrapped package on her sheets.

Anne gazed at the package for a moment, noting the ripping in the wrapping. She took a deep breath before she looked at Clay again, a dead look in her eyes.

"You opened it, so you already know. They were passports and other important documents, plus some cash, I'd say 2k." she stated as she opened the package and rummaged through it, checking if everything was still there.

"We took nothing, luv. Have a lil' faith, will ya?" Chibs said as he leaned against the doorpost.

She gave him just as a dead look as she did with Clay, before putting down the package again. Noting the name of the kuttes they wore, it relieved her to see they weren't part of the Mayan's. At least that was a reassurance that helped a bit. Though she'd never heard of 'Sons of Anarchy' before...

"I take it these are Mayan property then?" Jax asked her as he gestured to the package on her lap, "Hence your question this morning when we found you."

"They are. I stole the contents of their small vault." she said, "I was in the middle of my escape when I was shot in the river. You guys must've found me farther down, in the morning."

"Aye, we did." Chibs said.

"Why you stole from them, girl? Got a feud with the Mayans? Such a small girl as you? No wonder you almost got caught." Clay asked her, obviously not thinking high of her.

"No, it's my job." she said, giving him an angry look.

"Ah. Well, you're shit at your job then." Clay said as he stood from the chair he'd occupied, "You're lucky my boys found you, else you'd die at that place or became Mayan prey. The former would be better than the latter I guess."

Anne didn't even know how to respond at that. She just glared at him as he made a turn and rested his hands at her bed end.

"What you gonna do with it?" Clay asked as he gestured to the package.

"None of your business." she stated as she crossed her arms.

"Told you, feisty." Chibs said to Clay with a grin.

"Yeah, I got that. Well kid, we just dropped by to figure out what happened and hand that back to you again. Don't let me see your face ever again." Clay said with a deep sigh before he turned on his heel and yanked open the door.

Jax sighed and pushed himself from his chair, strolling out the door. Chibs just gave her a grinning nod before closing the door behind him, leaving her alone with herself.

Not for long though… Soon the police came in. She hung up some sad story about being assaulted in the middle of the night, with no sight of her attackers. Lost bullet, etc. With her cargo being taken by Clay and co. before the police took her clothes, it saved a lot of trouble… It reminded her that she hadn't thanked them yet. Not for saving her and not for saving her cargo. In her mind it scribbled itself on her to-do list, after she'd send away the package for her employer.

"Well, miss, I guess that's all then. Here are your clothes back and eh… we hope you'll be okay." the officer told her as he gave her a nod and a sigh, before leaving.

Breathing in the free air again, Anne had to admit she felt better than ever. Her clothes were dirty and her shoulder still hurt in a whiny way, but she was alive and she had completed her task. After making a stop at the post office to make sure her package would be send to her employer, she asked the directions to the nearest place to hire a car. No way that she was walking out of this place or using public transport. Not with the Mayan's still out there looking for her.

"Teller-Morrow?" Anne said as she flipped over the card that the lady at the post office had given her, after admitting that she herself had no idea, but they might, "Go figure."

With a deep sigh, she started to make her way down the street, towards the garage. At least this way she was able to thank the guys that saved her _twice_ today… unless half the town shared the same name.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it. If you have any ideas, comments, or whatever, feel free to hit up the 'review' button or pm me!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for everyone who favorited and followed the story! It really warms my heart! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything about Sons of Anarchy.

* * *

As soon as Anne found the entrance to the garage that said 'Teller-Morrow', she sighed. Indeed, as she had suspected, this place was tied to the men wearing the kuttes that had saved her. She could see a lot of kuttes being worn around here. With squinting eyes, she looked at her surroundings, a concrete parking lot filled with cars, a garage and building coming along with it that had images of the reaper and 'Sons of Anarchy' all over the walls. No doubt was this an important meeting spot.

"Can I help you, sweetheart?" someone told her, breaking her thoughts.

Anne turned around as she looked at a woman, possibly mid 50's, with strong highlighted hair. Something she wasn't sure suited the woman…

"Eh, sure? I'm looking for a place to rent a car." she said as she sheltered her eyes from the piercing sun, "The postal office turned me this way so… here I am."

The woman seemed to seize her up, before she put her hands at her sides and clicked her tongue.

"Sweetheart, what happened to you? You look like shit." she stated.

Anne took a critical look at her own appearance, small heeled boots dirty from the mud and the river, blouse all bloody from the gunshot and wound on her shoulder, hair still wild. There was still a hole in the jacket in her arms, where the bullet had gone through. A small apologetic grin crept up her lips. There wasn't even time to shower and wash her clothes at the hospital, not that she wanted to stick around for that long. Getting out of this place was first priority now.

"Long night. Let's keep it at that. Can I ask you a question?" she asked the woman, before pointing at the Son's clubhouse, "Is that where the Sons of Anarchy go about?"

The woman in front of her lifted one of her eyebrows before she gave Anne a stern look, full of warning and precaution. There was something about that look she didn't like. Like she wasn't supposed to utter that name, as if she wasn't worthy?

"They do. Why?"

Anne sighed as she scratched her head, "They kind of saved my life today. I didn't get to thank them yet, so I thought that would be a good thing to do."

"Yeah, I'll walk you in. By now most of them must've returned. Who was it, sweetheart?" the woman asked her as she gestured to come along.

Gently Anne fell in step with the woman, feeling slightly intimidated by her presence, and she didn't had that feeling often. Anne Miller was a young woman that could fend for herself, by herself, thank you very much.

"Jax Teller and Chibs?" she said, a little unsure if she pronounced it right.

The woman just gave a proud smile and nod. Just as she was about to pull open the door of the clubhouse, it was smacked open and a couple of guys were walking out of there, guffawing loudly and shaking their head as they sat down upon of the tables, pulling out smokes and lighting them.

"Jax. Chibs." the woman called, before she gestured to Anne, who felt pretty out of place at that moment.

"Well look at that. You out of the hospital?" Jax said as he and Chibs made their approach.

"Yeah, got the police easy off my back too, though that's all thanks to you guys. As is saving my life back at that river. I remembered I hadn't thanked you for that yet, so I came here to do that." she said, a little apologetic grin on her face.

"Nah, we're good. What does your employer want with Mayan stuff anyway?" Jax said as he leaned against one of the wooden posts around that held up the roof.

"I don't know. I don't ask. I just do my job." Anne said as she shrugged, "When I get my pay I'll make sure a part of it comes your way. After all, if it weren't for you two, I'd be dead meat. One way or another."

"You were just lucky we were passing by and not the Mayans." Jax said as he tossed away the butt of his cigarette, "Didn't get your name though, last time at the hospital. You were a little too busy trying to protect yourself with that curtain rod."

"Anne." she said, "Anne Miller."

She took a look behind them, at the woman with dark and highlighted hair that hung around with the rest of the guys, though eyeing Jax very closely, like a hawk. The woman seemed awfully close with the guys, as if she really knew them well.

"Hey, listen, I'm gonna say it anyway...Eh... Thanks for saving me this morning. I hope the money will compensate your troubles a little… But you really saved my ass out there. Twice." Anne said as she looked up at Jax and Chibs, "You wouldn't know where to rent a car, would you?"

Chibs lit the cigarette that hung from his lips and gave her a look over. It felt a bit strange, but she liked the sensation that it gave her. Foreign eyes looked at her through sunglasses, a slight grin on lips that made the scars on his cheeks twitch. It made her back tingle a little, spreading out to the tips of her fingers. That sensation one would get when there was eye contact for a little too long.

"You leaving, lass?" he finally asked.

"The sooner, the better. I want to get as far away from the Mayans as I can, as soon as I can." Anne admitted, though she had to smile a little at the man's accent.

Jax and Chibs shot each other a look, before Chibs opened his mouth to say anything, but quickly closed it as a roaring voice inside the clubhouse shut them up. Suddenly the door flew open again and Clay Morrow stepped outside.

"You're not going anywhere. Jax, Chibs, inside. Meeting is about to start." he called out gruffly as he pointed at Jax and Chibs.

"You. Sit down and stay. I wanna talk to you after." Clay told her as he gave her a look that screamed authority.

Anne sunk down in one of the seats of the picnic tables around, her mood darkening. Every minute she spend here longer than necessary would give her a disadvantage.

The woman with dark and highlighted hair gave Clay a small peck on his cheek before she made her way over to Anne, taking a seat across her and offering her a cigarette from her pack of smokes.

"Seems like your troubles ain't over yet." she said.

"You got it. Thanks." Anne said as she gladly took a smoke from the woman's pack.

"Gemma." the woman said as she held out her lighter to Anne, a small smile playing on her lips as she took in the girl before her.

"Anne." Anne answered as she quickly lit the cigarette and breathed in deeply, before handing the lighter back to Gemma.

* * *

Half an hour passed by. Thirty minutes of Anne hanging around in her seat, smoking a cigarette or two from Gemma's pack and watching the employees of garage Teller-Morrow go about their job. Anne just crushed a cigarette butt under the heel of her boot when the door flew open again and a man with dark curls and blue eyes wove her inside.

Anne pushed herself from her seat and gave Gemma a short nod. She could've taken off if she wanted, but it seemed Gemma kept a close watch on her. Anne had decided it was better to stay and hear Clay out, before she'd take off anyway. After getting a car around here somewhere.

The inside of the clubhouse was dark and smelled of old beer, cigarettes and leather, though not the nice new kind. Clay waited for her at the bar, beer in hand. His sunglasses were pushed on the top of his head. The other members of the motorcycle club quickly turned away and started to pick up on their tasks, as she made her way over to him. There was no sight of Chibs or Jax. Admittedly, it would've helped to see some friendly faces as she would talk to Clay about whatever her wanted.

"You wanted to talk?" she asked him as she watched him sip his beer.

"Anne was it, I heard?" Clay asked her as he put his beer down and kicked a stool over to her, "Sit."

With a deep sigh, Anne complied and let herself down on the stool he'd so kindly offered. With a curious look she took in her environment. Why was it so dark in here?

"I heard you've been looking for a rental car." Clay started as he took another swig from his drink, "Running from the Mayans?...You won't get far."

Anne gave Clay an intrigued look, trying to figure out what he meant. The longer she sat on that stool, the lesser comfort it provided. She was getting antsy. She wanted to go, to move. Anytime sooner would be better. Just why wanted Clay to talk to her again?

"Why's that? You rat me out?" she asked, suspicion washing over her face.

"Nothing of the sort, sweetheart. Mayan's arms are long. They reach all the way into Nevada. I don't know where you think you're going but they'll find you eventually I'm afraid." Clay added as he put his empty bottle down, "Half-sack! Another. Bring the lady something too."

A young boy, seemingly just out of his teenage years, shook up from Clays command and started to grab two cold bottles of beer. Hastily he opened them and handed them to Clay and Anne.

"We could protect you from the Mayans, you know." Clay started as soon as he took his first sip of his cold drink.

"Lemme guess. It's gonna cost me." Anne guessed as she too put the bottle to her lips and took a swig.

Clay took that as an encouragement and he put his bottle down. Leaning on his arm over the bar, he turned to look at her.

"I have an offer for you. You work a job for me, occasionally now and then, and we'll protect your ass from the Mayans."

Anne gave him a dead look as she took another sip. She didn't like the grin on his face for a moment. It felt like there was something behind it, a ruse or a trick. Was this some sort of trap she was walking into?

"You told me at the hospital I was doing a shit job. Besides, you didn't want to see my face ever again. So what's with all this, huh?"

It was more a statement than a question, but it only brightened Clay's smile. It bared his teeth which really made him much more terrifying.

"Yeah yeah, I know what I said. Your get away wasn't really that great was it? Listen, we could use someone with talents like yourself, acquiring a thing or two for our advantage. We'd even help out with the get away... Much better than getting shot in the shoulder, don't you think?" he said in a low grumble.

"Frankly, I don't think you got a choice, sweetheart." he continued, "Mayans are out there looking for you and they have quite the territory. Surely they'll recognize you, or anyone that looks remotely like you. You took some big things from them and they are not taking well to that. Taking the risk to leave is on you, but it would be a shame to discover your cold body down the highway. Any enemy of the Mayans is a friend of mine and you got some useful talent..."

Anne swallowed as she took in this new intel. So the Mayans were really looking for her out there? What chance did she had by herself in a strange county. If Clay was right and their reach was far, would she ever really live peacefully? She'd never been in a situation like this before. Was there really a choice to make?

She bit on the bottom of her lip. She hated the coward's way out, always had, but if it was between life and death...she suspected she could hang around a little longer. Problem was, if she got protection from them as a deal, she needed to make some money for herself.

Either way, it was clear to see that Clay was doing this for his own good, not just because he cared for her. She could tell he cared naught for her, but she could be useful. Now that was something he and his organization cared about.

"You're right, with the Mayans out there... I don't really have a choice I guess. Fine, I accept your deal." Anne admitted finally, as she took a huge gulp of her beer.

Clay's grin widened even more, if that was possible. It seemed he had counted on her agreement. He tipped the end of his bottle to her, as some sort of salute, while he took a gulp.

"That's good to hear, Anne. You'll see that Charming will grow on you, with time." Clay stated before he gestured for her to step outside with him. Sighing, Anne turned around in her stool and followed him to the door, to the bright light of the sun outside.

Squinting her eyes at the sudden flare of the sun, she almost missed Clay holding out a pack of smokes to her, offering her one. With slight hesitation, she took one and accepted his lighter.

As the puffs of smoke left her lips, she looked at the concrete parking place before them again. It seemed she was going to see a lot more of this place. Tapping the ashes of her cigarette, she watched as Jax and the dark curled man from before worked on one of the bikes that had been brought in.

"You'll be working with some of my crew now and then, I'll introduce you later on." Clay said as he followed her gaze over every member with a kutte.

"I work alone, Clay." Anne said as she took another drag of her cigarette.

"Not anymore. I can't trust you just yet. You're working with them, if you refuse, I'll let you leave to die out there just as easily." Clay answered with a low rumble, indicating to her that there really wasn't any argument to be held about this.

"Have it your way then. Anything is better than a casket under the ground." Anne said as she threw her cigarette butt onto the ground and stomped on it.

"Got a place to stay?" Clay asked, without sounding like he was offering anything.

"Not really." Anne said as she leaned against the wall of the clubhouse, "Thieves never stay in one place for a long time. I'll rent a motel room or something, until I've found something else. Or not."

Clay looked at her before he nodded. Taking the last drag of his cigarette, the man threw it on the ground and stomped on the smoldering butt. He exhaled the smoke and grumbled before he put his sunglasses back on.

"Lemme know which one you've settled on and I'll send one of my guys with you. He'll keep an eye out for trouble tonight." Clay said before he left her alone at the wall of the clubhouse, to kiss his woman before disappearing in the small office of the garage.

Anne was left a little dumbfounded by it all. Had she really done this? She never worked with other people, finding them to be more in her way than useful. Now she'd accepted to work together with a motorcycle club with shady motives, seeming as they needed a thieve once in a while.

"Shit." she spat as she realized she might've accepted Clay's deal too early.

Taking the last sip from her bottle of beer, she sighed. She guessed there wasn't really to be done about it, besides seeing how it would play out.

* * *

The rest of the day was filled with doing nothing much but observing the people that went about at garage Teller-Morrow and the clubhouse. She felt a little out of place, and everyone else seemed busy enough. She'd tried to change the bandages of her wounded shoulder in one of the bathrooms around, though she had to admit it wasn't done as neatly as at the hospital. She promised herself to redo them again at the motel, where she'd have more time and room for herself to change them properly.

Toying with her phone, she tried to figure out if she needed to call her employer to know the package was coming his way. Sighing she opened the menu with her contacts and send him a quick text, consisting out of two words:'job done'. With a longing look, she watched as her screen showed her the animated image of her text being send into the world. She looked up when someone passed her by, his shadow passing over hers. Looking up, she could make out Chibs' retreating form, as he put a helmet over his head and lifted his leg to step over his bike.

For a moment she glanced at him, and caught his gaze. She could feel the same tingling sensation he'd given her earlier and she was still enjoying them. A small smile worked its way up her lips, though she wasn't really sure why. Why was she smiling like an idiot!?

Kicking his bike into life, Chibs soon turned his head and focused on getting his bike out of the parking spot he'd put it, before he rode through the gates of the garage, onto the streets. Anne could follow his movements until he rounded the corner, way too soon.

"You Anne?" a young kid with tribal tattoo's on the sides of his head suddenly asked her, squinting at her because of the sun.

"Yeah, I am. I guess you're my ride and babysitter for the night." Anne answered with a little humor as she looked at him.

"That's one way to look at it. Name's Juice." Juice said with a small smile, though Anne suspected it was a nickname. Who the hell would call their kid 'Juice'? She did wonder however where he'd gotten it from, surely an embarrassing story must be behind it.

"Well then, Juice. Let's get going. You can just pull over at the nearest motel. I'm sure they'll have room in this little town." Anne said as she tossed her newly out of boredom braided blonde hair back.

"Okay, come with me." Juice said as he held up the keys to a car.

Anne grabbed her own backpack and hoisted it up on her good shoulder, as she followed Juice.

"Is that everything you brought with you?" Juice wondered as he pointed at her small backpack.

"Well, I wasn't planning on going on a holiday, was I?" Anne retorted before she slid into the passenger seat.

Juice's face scrounged up in something like a hidden laugh as he dropped himself in the driver's seat. He put the keys in the ignition and turned them, kicking the car to life and reversing it out of its parking spot. Anne just let her head fall back against the seat and watched as Juice drove them out of the gates of Teller-Morrow.

* * *

A/N: So, that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what y'all think!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hello to you all!

This chapter will be a bit longer than the rest, since I couldn't find a right way to split it and I wanted to make the chapters longer anyway.

I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for favoriting and following the stories and let me know what you think! Reviews are always welcome!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy, nor it's characters.

* * *

Anne woke up to the sound of her phone buzzing. She pushed herself up from the old damp sheets the motel had offered her yesterday, though she didn't complain. Up on arrival, she'd changed the bandages in the bathroom and soon had collapsed on the bed, her own tiredness catching up to her.

Anne unlocked the screen on her phone and read the text message from her former employer, telling her that payment was being transferred to her account right now. Good, at least that was some positive news.

Quietly she slipped away from the sheets and made her way over to the bathroom, trying not to wake Juice. Sprawled out on the couch like a lazy teenager, he snored softly. Anne shook her head before returning her gaze at the mirror and running a hand to her disheveled hairdo. She looked pale, with slight black circles under her eyes and bloodshot eyes. Letting warm water run into the sink, she quickly washed her face, trying to massage out all the tiredness. Her shoulder gave her a painful jolt as she bend back to look at her reflection again, reminding her to change the bandages.

Walking back into the room to get the set of bandages from her backpack, she noted a bag in the corner of the room. One that hadn't been there yesterday when they'd arrived. Slowly and silently, Anne made her way over to it. She gave Juice a quick look, but he was still asleep. Anne held her head close to the bag, expecting something that ticked inside, or something like that, but there was no sound. Frowning slightly, Anne's fingers curled themselves around the zipper and she let it roll over the tiny iron tracks. Soon, clothing became visible. Women's clothing. And in her size it seemed.

"Gemma came over yesterday, to give you that. She thought you might've like a change of clothes. You were fast asleep so I didn't wake you." Juice muttered lazily from the couch, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Smart thinking of Gemma. I'm getting a bit tired of the bulletholes in my shirts." Anne agreed as she pulled out a shirt and a black leather jacket from the bag.

"Slept alright, Juice?" she asked as she passed him and picked up the bandages she'd picked up from her backpack earlier on.

"Yeah...Just don't tell Clay, ok? He'd skin me alive if he knew I'd been taken a nap on the job." Juice admitted as he sat straight again and ran a hand over his shaven head.

"My lips are sealed, mister." Anne told him before she locked herself in the bathroom, stripping herself of her old clothes and bandages.

The sterile white of the old bandages were smeared with red. Old blood most likely, or at least that was the conclusion when Anne turned her back to the mirror and inspected the wound. Quickly she stepped into the shower and turned it on, letting the water pour over herself and cleaning away her tiredness and on and around the wound, like they had shown her at the hospital. A faint buzzing sound was audible, coming from the other room, followed by Juice muttering, though unclear.

Soon a knock was heard on the bathroom door.

"Anne? We need to get back to TM…Clay has a job for you?" the confusion was clear in his voice. It seemed Clay hadn't informed all of his members about their new associate yet.

"Yeah, I'll hurry it. Gimme a moment." she said as she got dressed quickly and pushed her hair around to make it fall into some kind of do, without too much effort.

Clearing away her stuff in the bathroom, she stepped outside and gestured to it for Juice to use it.

"Nah, that's okay. I'll shower at TM." Juice said as he held up the keys to the car.

Anne shrugged as she pushed her old clothes onto the bed, wondering just how big that clubhouse was. She gathered the little stuff that she thought she needed, and stuffed them in the pockets of her borrowed jeans, before she walked after Juice into the open.

* * *

Flinging open the door of the passenger side of the car, Anne got out of the car and shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand. The concrete parking jungle of Teller-Morrow was already filled with cars and bikes, though it was unsure for her which ones belonged to who. Juice walked in front of her, greeting some members of the MC as he went. Anne trotted after him, certain that Juice would take her to Clay.

She wondered what this job was, that Clay had in store for her. Touching her painful shoulder, she hoped it wasn't something intense. She wasn't sure her shoulder would like that. At least she wouldn't have to do it alone, as Clay had mentioned, some of the Sons would accompany her.

Stepping inside the shade that the small roof above the entrance provided her, Anne dropped her hand that she had used to block out the sun. A familiar face greeted her, holding out his pack of smokes to her.

"Morning, Jax." Anne greeted the blonde kid as she gladly accepted one of his cigarettes, "I really should get my own pack of smokes. I owe you..."

"So much for leaving Charming huh?" Jax asked as he held out a lighter for her.

"Yeah, I guess." she admitted as she lit her cigarette and took a small drag from it. From the corner in her eyes she caught Juice going inside already.

"Heard Clay offered you a job." Jax said as he crossed his arms, one hand occupied by his cigarette.

"You heard right." Anne said as she sat herself atop the table. "Gonna do a job or two for him whenever he needs me to. He makes sure I won't end up in a body bag in return. Chibs not here?"

"Nope. Out on club business. Why?" Jax said as he gave her a look.

"Nothing, just making idle conversation." Anne retorted, slightly too fast.

Why did she ask about Chibs in the first place? She barely met the guy. Maybe it had something to do with his accent. She was a sucker for accents and it seemed his was just too good. Maybe it just did her good to see some familiar faces, if she was going to stick around in this place longer. Besides, it felt like she was on Clay's shit-list already… it couldn't hurt to make a couple of friends _in_ the MC.

She took another drag from her cigarette, letting the clouds of smoke enter the free air and dissolve as they went. Standing in silence for a moment, she tried to gather her thoughts about the situation. All of a sudden she wasn't just working alone anymore… she had to get used to that.

"Gonna have my pay today." she told Jax, "I'll make sure to pay you guys some for coming to my rescue."

Jax shook his head as he tossed away the butt of his cigarette into the concrete distance. He put a hand on her good shoulder, giving her a grin as he stood from his position and walked away backwards.

"There's no need. You're paying us back with labor, that counts for something!" he said before he turned on his heel and made his way over to the garage.

Shaking her head at Jax's laid back attitude, Anne crushed the remains of her smoke under the heel of her boot before she walked into the clubhouse.

As expected, it was dark inside. Some of the guys, with 'prospect' labeled on their kuttes, were cleaning the place and helping out carrying heavy stuff.

Clay waited for her at the bar, where he was enjoying a cup of coffee. In his other hand he clutched something that looked like what would've been a cupcake, were it not it had been torn in half by Clay's teeth.

"Good. About time." Clay said, "Half-sack! Give the lady some coffee and hurry up!"

The same young boy from yesterday suddenly sprang up and started to rummage around with cups and black liquid Anne regarded as gold in the mornings. No coffee meant no functioning Anne.

"Juice told me you got a job for me. Now, isn't that a coincidence seeing our conversation yesterday?" Anne said as she thankfully accepted a cup of coffee from the young prospect.

"Why did you think you and me talked in the first place? You're just at the right place, at the right time." Clay answered gruffly, "You can see it as some sort of initiation, a chance to proof you're trustworthy and useful for my business."

"Excellent."Anne retorted, a little sarcasm in her voice, "You do know I still have a wound in my shoulder? I'm gonna need some help with whatever you're gonna hand out to me." she continued as she took a sip of her coffee. It was strong and hot, just the way she loved it.

"Think you would be going alone? I _told_ you, you work with my crew." Clay said as he soon finished off the cupcake with one bite.

He shook the crumbs off his hands with a few movements before he finished his coffee. Slamming his empty cup on the bar, the young prospect called 'Half-Sack' quickly hurried over to give him a refill. It wasn't hard to see that Clay scared the young prospect beyond shit.

From his back pocket, Clay grabbed a small envelope and smacked it on the bar. Curiously Anne took a look at it as she downed the rest of her coffee.

"Last week, the Mayans blew up our weapon depot," Clay started as he leaned against the bar, "We made sure to pay them back equally, but things got out of hand. We thought we had every camera handled but unfortunately there's still footage lying around-"

"You want me to go in and get it." Anne broke in as she opened the envelope, revealing photo's of a Mayan base. Her heart dropped at the speed of a train, down into floor as she lowered the envelope, giving Clay a long stare, almost as if to say 'really?'.

"Jesus Christ, Clay, Mayans? I just got away from these dudes. Our deal was to protect my ass from these guys, not to haul it back in."

She lifted the yellow envelope with the pictures as she rolled her eyes and slumped in her seat, obviously not really looking forward to a run in with these guys. Running a hand through her tangled blonde hair, she finally folded the envelope in half and pocketed in the backside of her jeans.

"I'm gonna need a guy or two, masks and a car. Your motorcycles are too obvious. And I might need some tools. I need to prepare this shit before we go in. When do you want it to go down?" Anne said, as she watched Half-Sack fill up her cup with coffee again.

"Tonight. I'll send Tig and Juice with you." Clay said as he shoved her a pack of smokes over the bar, including a pack of matches.

"Jesus." Anne spat as she gladly picked up the pack of smokes and the matches, "Well, I better get to work then."

She turned her back to Clay and jumped from her seat, grabbing her cup of coffee from the bar and making a beeline for the door, grabbing a lost pen from one of the nearby tables.

* * *

Anne had always been a planner. It gave her some sense of control when preparing a heist or a job. There was so much that could get out of hand so easily in the moment itself... For now, she turned her attention to the pictured laid out in front of her. That moment of utmost concentration, where her brain tried to wrap itself around a plan. There was something about taking in all the intel and twisting it to something useful, tying all loose ends into something… it was like a puzzle.

Cigarette in hand, Anne flipped through the photographs. She could tell that the one taken them hadn't been a skilled one. Most of them were kind of blurry and she couldn't see all of the security measures of the base. That somewhat complicated her puzzle. It left some blanks in her plan, but so far, she could see that there wasn't really anything to be afraid of.

Taking a drag from the stick in her hand, she let the smoke slowly escape from her lips, as she leaned back. Her eyes glanced over the photographs laid out before her: different angles of the warehouse, some guards (probably on payroll), a couple of Mayans. She had circled some of the options in her mind on the pictures: entrances, exits, danger spots, etc. Still, it bothered her she hadn't had a full view of the place.

A shadow suddenly made her turn her head up, looking up at the guy that had wove her in yesterday. She recognized the dark curls and blue eyes. His kutte gave away he was part of the MC, but she could've guessed even without the kutte. There seemed something off about him. Something that made him stand out from being a 'normal' citizen.

"Can I help you?" she asked, a little irritated because someone was interrupting her process.

The man grinned broadly before he took a seat opposite of her. He reached out to the pack of smokes and looked at her, asking with his expression if it was ok if he took one. Anne gave a short nod.

"I heard you and I are going on a threesome date tonight." he said, his voice matching the dirty grin on his face, "I'll make sure you'll have a good time, baby doll."

Anne coughed, not expecting such a blatant remark. Trying to push down the slight red that had crept upon her cheeks, she crushed her cigarette under her boot.

"That's one way to put it, I guess." she said as she rolled her eyes.

Tig grinned, seeing as his remark had some success in embarrassing her. He puffed out a small cloud of smoke before he toyed with his cigarette, taking a curious look at her scribbles on the pictures in front of her.

"Look at you, preparing everything." he remarked as he pulled the nearest photograph towards him, "And here I thought Clay had hired some weak ass good-for-nothing."

"It's better than running into the place with guns blazing. We want this to be a stealth job. At least I do." she commented as she snatched the picture back from him, "I have no intention of letting the Mayans know I have put them at a disadvantaged yet again."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that." Tig said as he looked her over, grin on his face, "Nice."

Suddenly she felt a little self conscious about how she looked. Her hair was a tangled mess, though it didn't look too bad, her leather jacket open, revealing a white top that showed just enough of her cleavage. She should've thought her choice of clothing better through this morning…

She didn't know why but Tig's gaze over her didn't gave her the same sensation as when Chibs had. There was something impure… something nasty in Tig's gaze. Something that made her cringe a little. It came not anywhere near to the delightful tingling sensation she got when Chibs looked at her. It didn't wake that flame of desire inside her, that surging feeling of pure passion. That feeling when you just want to tear somebody apart, pure out of lust.

Well, to be honest, she wanted to tear Tig apart as well, but for different reasons, and in a different way. By now she had gotten the message that this man was probably the pervert of them all. All gangs had them, in different sizes and shapes, but this man was something else. She was sure his list of poor girls that fell for his charade was long. Very long.

"Listen, I want this to be a quick job. Get in, get that footage, get out." she said as she snapped Tig's gaze back to her green eyes. "I don't give a shit who's driving, as long as he's fast. The less time we spent there, the happier I am."

She gathered up the pictures and stuffed them back in the envelope Clay had given her.

"I'll see you tonight. Don't be late." she said to Tig, gladly making her way out of his heavy gaze. She could do with a little rest, maybe inside. Maybe Half-Sack would make her another coffee. She'd never say no to coffee.

* * *

"Alrigh' lads, that's it." Chibs called as the last of the oil drums was hoisted upon the truck. He grinned at McKeavey, his contact that took care of the shipment of the guns.

"You take care, Chibs." McKeavey said as he pressed his hand firmly into Chibs'.

"Aye, you too, bastard." Chibs joked, before he waited for the prospect to finish up tying the barrels down to the truck.

He watched as McKeavey made his retreat back on the ship, before plucking a cigarette from his pack and lighting it with his zippo. He clicked the metallic top back onto the device and let it slide into the pocket of his kutte. Inhaling deeply, he let the events of the day pass by.

Usually he found some fun in these kind of shipment assignments, but he couldn't help but to wonder what was going on in Charming. Yesterday that female thief, Anne, had stated clearly she wanted to get out of that shite town as soon as she was able to. Yet, when he was off to this place, she was still sticking around. Something just didn't add up. And that look they shared…. Chibs had had his fair share of looks, gazes and gawking at girls, _with_ girls, but this, this was different. It had felt different. He couldn't quite place a finger on it yet but there was something about that woman that made him curious about her. And Chibs wasn't the guy that went around digging for backstories...

Taking another drag of his cigarette, he walked to the back of the truck, checking up on the work of the prospect. He made sure the oil barrels were tied down tightly before he hurried the prospect into the driver's seat.

"You drive. I'll take over halfway." he told him as he tossed the poor young kind a set of keys.

He climbed in at the passenger's seat and shut the door with a loud bang, propping his feet up on the dashboard, tapping the ashes from his smoke at the window.

"Well, c'mon, lad. We ain't got all day!" Chibs barked at the prospect as the poor kid tried to start the truck.

As the prospect finally had brought the vehicle to life, Chibs let his head rest against the window. Aye, he had to admit, there was something else about Anne. There was some kind of mystery around her, that only made him want to unravel it more. If she loosened up a little, he thought she could actually be some kind of fun. But he would never find that out. He suspected that, by now, she would've been gone.

* * *

Tig waited for them at the motel, a small dark van supporting his back as he leaned against it. He let his cigarette drop to the ground and stepped on it, crushing it.

"All set?" Tig asked them as he opened the passenger's seat. There was enough room for two.

Tig gave Juice a firm smack on his shoulder, obviously meant as a joke, though Anne caught Juice grimace a little in pain.

"My lady..." Tig said with a mocking bow, as he gestured to the passenger's seat.

Anne rolled her eyes, thought she couldn't help the small grin on her face as he did that. Apparently it was hard for this man to be serious. Even though they had some work cut out for them. Serious work.

She couldn't help the small nervous whirlwind in her stomach, a feeling she always got when she started a job. It didn't matter she was doing this for 5 years already, every time again she felt the pressure… and the fear to fail. Failing wasn't an option this time. It never was, but right now it wasn't just about her. If they'd fail, it wouldn't just blow back on her, it would also blow back on the MC. Clay would have her head.

She and Juice crawled into the passenger's side of the van, as Tig slipped behind the wheel.

"Masks are in the bag, as are some bigger tools. You know, to cut open gates and stuff, or a finger, or an ear." Tig said, grinning as he put the van in reverse.

"Funny." Anne remarked with a flat expression.

"You carrying?" Juice asked as he showed her his gun.

"Jesus, put that away." Anne said as she shook her head, "No I'm not."

Both Juice and Tig tutted and shook their heads in return. Tig drove them out on the highway, leaving Charming behind them.

"Not clever, doll face." Tig told her, "We're about to enter into enemy territory. Trust me, next time they'll shoot, it won't be just a shot wound in your shoulder."

Anne touched her shoulder involuntarily, reminded about her last run in with the Mayans. She rather not have to do that again. She reached for the inside of her boot and took out a small butterfly knife. Years ago, when she first got to the states, she'd bought it from some sketchy arms dealer. Sketchy or not, it had saved her ass some times, at least by intimidation.

"Ok, at least that's something." Tig admitted, "Though it won't do much against guns. You need to learn how to shoot."

"Just pull the trigger, right?" Anne said with a sly grin, trying to get out of the topic with a joke.

Juice snorted as he grabbed a cigarette, offering it to Tig over Anne's lap. Gladly, Tig accepted, giving Anne a sly grin himself.

"It takes a bit more than that, sweet cheeks, but we'll make sure someone teaches when we're back." Tig answered as he put the cigarette between his lips and made a left turn.

* * *

It didn't take them long to arrive at their destination. Tig killed the lights and let the van roll slowly when they approached the warehouse. It was situated in the middle of nowhere, which Anne didn't find that smart of a move, but whatever. Trees kept the warehouse slightly from sight at the highway. Dust and yellow gravel grinded together under the wheels of the van. From the small bag in front of his feet, Juice grabbed a binocular and looked through it before passing it to Anne.

She, in her turn, took a look and passed them to Tig while chewing on the inside of her cheek. A small plan was quickly forming in her mind. There were two guards circling the place, not obviously much for a warehouse like this, though heavily armed. And surely a Phone on them. Wrong move and they'd speed dial the Mayans, not exactly what they wanted.

Moments later she found herself low against the ground, a dark mask pulled over her head, hiding her face and identity. Next to her Tig and Juice were also crawled down onto the ground. The three of them eyed the lock that was placed on the gate, to lock the place down. Tig held up a hefty pair of tongs, but Anne shook her head. She rummaged around in her small purse she used on jobs like this and pulled out a set of lock-picks.

"Let's make it look like an inside job, it'd buy us some extra time plus confusion among Mayans. It's a bonus." she whispered as she eyed the area within the gates again, waiting for the guards to pass them again. Two guys, carrying AK 47's rounded the corner and walked in opposite directions. As soon as they did, Anne crept forward, flashlight stuck in her mouth as she placed the iron sticks in the lock and started to turn them. With searching eyes, she looked for the guards, hoping they would take a while on this round.

Next to her Tig and Juice waited impatiently, until the lock gave in and clicked open with a soft sound.

As silently as she could, she gathered the lock and its chain, put them to the side of the gate and nodded to Tig and Juice, who sneaked in at her signal, chasing down the guards that had disappeared from sight.

Suppressing the nagging feeling of pressure, Anne kept low to the ground as she made her way to one of the doors. She breathed in before she leaned forward and started to work with the lockpicks again. If this was to look like an inside job, the less damage they made, the better. Surprisingly, the lock caved in easily enough.

Sneaking her way in, she grabbed the knife from the inside of her boot and rounded the corner. The warehouse was empty, save for rows and rows with boxes on metallic shleves – thank god for that. Relaxing a little, she straightened her back and walked a few rounds, trying to locate the place of the footage. Surely they'd keep it with a tv or something…

On her fifth round through the inside of the warehouse, she discovered a small door, labeled 'private'. Of course. Placing her hand on the doorknob, Anne breathed in and placed the side of her head against the door, listening for sounds that might indicate that there was still someone inside. However, it sounded quiet as the grave. Pushing the door open, Anne stepped inside and smiled as she discovered multiple tv's and boxes with dvd's.

Putting the knife between her teeth, she started to search the boxes. Her gloved fingers ran over the back of their plastic confinements, sorted by date. She wondered if they collected the footage of their warehouses and depots every day. Or every week. Had they seen the footage already, of Clay and his crew wrecking that depot?

Her expression knitted into a frown as she pushed the box under her hands to the side and grabbed another one. These seemed more recently. Was anyone watching these tapes at all? They all seemed untouched.

Her eyes went big when she stumbled upon dvd's that said ' **depot** ' and last week's dates. Quickly taking out a couple of them, she turned the tv on and pushed the disc into the device plugged into it. Her eyes searched the screen as she skipped through the discs at high speed, trying to catch the right disc out of the lot. Taking all of them would rouse more suspicion.

What seemed like eternity, but surely was less in reality, she finally stumbled upon the footage Clay had ordered her to get. She watched as the members of Sons of Anarchy ran around the place. How the whole thing went to shit when Clay killed a guy. Soon the footage was ended abruptly when the place exploded like fireworks. It was a miracle they could get this much out of a damaged camera.

Pursing her lips, Anne pulled the respective disc out of the player and put it in its plastic case. Putting the rest of the dvd's back in the box, she stood thinking to herself for a moment. Just what did she make of all of this? Did it matter? Did it change her position on her deal with Clay? If only, it showed her that he was just as dangerous as the Mayans. He wasn't scared to kill anyone that seemed a liability.

 _Gangs_. Sighing she put the dvd in her purse, and turned around to make her exit, when her eyes fell upon an open dvd case, labeled **'break** **in'** and the date of two days ago. The disc was missing, but she guessed it was inside the player plugged into a second tv.

"Shit." Anne muttered as she hastily sat back down, turned that tv on and let the footage play out before her eyes. No doubt was this the camera footage of her robbing the small vault of the Mayans, days earlier.

Her eyes swept over the screen as she followed the footage up to the point she had made her exit and men started to pursue her, letting the chase happen outside the camera's. For a split moment she stood at crossroads, before she yanked the disc out of the player and shut down the tv's. Throwing the disc inside her purse, without its case, she quickly walked out of the small room, shutting the door behind her. If the Mayans took that footage to the police, for whatever reason, they could make an arrest warrant on her and that was the last thing she needed right now. Let alone Clay and his shady business.

Sighing, she quickly made her way to the exit of the warehouse, listening at the door before she opened it and let it fall closed behind her.

Tig and Juice waited for her at the gates, looking relaxed. How the hell could they look relaxed like that?

As she approached them, she gave them a questioning look. Tig grinned as he took a drag of his cigarette, Juice pocketed his hands and looked up to the sky.

"Where are the guards?" Anne asked them as she closed the gates and wrapped the chain around it again, locking the place down again.

"Oh, taking a sweet nap on the backside of the building. Knocked them out." Tig said, "Honestly, we could've handled this fine without you. You got the footage?"

Anne gave him a dead look, before she nodded and quickly made her way back to the van with them. Holding up the cased dvd, she grinned as Juice pulled the van out of their spot and took off.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello again! I wrote a new chapter, hope you'll enjoy it! And a special thanks to 'angel897' for the review. I hope I can keep it interesting for you and all other readers!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or its characters.

* * *

As the van rolled into the driveway of Teller-Morrow Automotive, Anne could finally feel like she could relax again. The job was done, nobody had been shot. Without Tig and Juice there to take care of the guards, she wasn't sure she would've made it with her damaged shoulder. At least now she didn't had to do all the hard work.

"How about a drink?" Tig said as he opened the passenger's door and dropped himself out of the car.

Juice killed the engine and slipped out of his seat as well. Anne decided to follow them, a drink couldn't hurt and the sooner she handed Clay his footage, the better it was. She wasn't sure if she'd made the right choice by taking the footage of herself, but she figured it was too late to doubt that now. Her hand slid downward, to her purse, making sure the discs were still there.

Suddenly she realized how crowded the parking lot was, and that for a late night… There were more bikes out here than she'd previously seen before. Was something going on? Or yet, hadn't she seen the MC yet at its full force?

"Sweet! It's a party!" Juice said as he opened the door of the clubhouse and entered it, letting the noise outside. There was a lot of girls laughing, glasses being smashed against each other, music and guys with strong voices telling loud stories.

Tig grinned and rubbed his hands, obviously happy to be a part of that said party. Anne had the slight suspicion it wasn't just your average party, judging the noise. And upon entering she was proven right. Girls strutted around the place, wearing as less as they could, taking up seat in any man's lap they could find. A little confused, Anne looked at the display before her. Girls on the side of the bar, checking out the men; girls at the pool tables, trying to show others what they were made of. Girls with (fake) happy expressions, girls that looked seething when some other bimbo took up the spot of their favorite men. Just what the hell was this?

Approaching the bar, she looked at Half-Sack, who obviously didn't mind the amount of poorly dressed girls.

"Hey, know where I can find Clay?" she shouted, trying to raise her voice over the music.

Half-Sack seemed to think about her question as he poured her a beer and handed it to her, something she accepted gratefully. He seemed a little distracted by a brunette that leaned over the bar way too much, just to grab a coaster. She couldn't blame him, he was younger than her but she could imagine what these girls did with the hormones of a guy like that.

"I-I'll go look for him, just a second!" Half-Sack suddenly said, remembering her question when he looked back at her.

Anne sighed as she sunk down upon one of the chairs, looking around the place. At moments like this it seemed like it wasn't the same dark and depressing hole like this morning. Some places were just made to party.

Anne herself had never been that much of a party-goer, but she liked to hang around for the beer. It had been always like that, in the past: her friends going nuts on the dance floor and she was left at the bar, getting drunk through contests. Not that she minded. She liked the atmosphere at the bar better than on the dance floor.

Half-Sack soon returned to the bar, grinning at her.

"He'll be here soon, he's out back- eh… doing some stuff. Boss stuff." he said as he scratched himself behind his ear.

"Yeah, sure. Betting it's probably one of these blonde bimbo's." Anne said with a grin as she turned to Half-Sack, "So where did all these girls come from, all of a sudden?"

Half-Sack shrugged as he leaned forward, closer to her, pointing out several groups of girls giggling together and eye batting several of the men in kuttes.

"Those are sweetbutts, or croweaters. I can never really tell the difference… They just hang around for the sex, keep the clubhouse tidy and parties going. But mostly the sex." he said, blatantly, before he poured some more beer, for other members of the MC Anne had not met yet.

"Really?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side, "Just like that, nothing in return?"

"Well, some of them hope to become an Old Lady at some point." Tig said behind her, having eavesdropped at their conversation. He handed his empty glasses at Half-Sack for a refill.

"Old Lady?" Anne asked with a slightly amused expression on her face.

"Yeah, you know, someone's girlfriend or wife." Tig said, grinning at her, "Who knows, doll face, you might end up someone's Old Lady..."

Anne gave him a hard smack on his arm, sour expression on her face. That only made him laugh even more. Even though Tig could gross her out easily, she'd seen he could be a bit fun too. And she needed friendly faces around.

"You meant yours probably. No thanks. I've had my share of bad boys and you're just terrible." she said, feigning some annoyance, though she could actually laugh at his joke.

Tig just shrugged, big grin on his face as he hoisted his beers out of Half-Sack's hands and shuffled past them.

"Who knows, doll face, who knows."

He soon disappeared into a booth filled with women, who were eager to drape their arms around him. To coo at him and giggle at all his innuendo's. Shaking her head, Anne had to admit she had to laugh a little at that display.

Anne grinned before she turned her gaze back at the bar and gulped down some of the beer. For some reason Tig's banter had made her think of Chibs. She didn't know why but it had. Somewhere she'd hoped she'd run into him here, but it seemed he was still out on club business. She didn't know why that made her a bit...disappointed. Though, didn't know how she'd feel about finding him out here with all these 'sweetbutts' or 'croweaters' draped around him like Christmas decoration. It was weird, where had these thoughts come from all of a sudden? She barely knew the guy...

She was pulled from her thoughts when Clay entered the room and made his way over to her. Quickly she let her hands slid inside her purse and pull out the cased DVD. She held it up for him, with the backside to him so he could read the red letters that indicate the date of the disc.

"Run into problems?" Clay asked brusquely before he took the case from her fingers and opened it.

"No, it was surprisingly quiet. You'd think they'd guard that place better." she told him as she took another swig of her drink, "Or at least put up camera's like the rest of the warehouses."

"Good." he said before he took something out of his pocket and tossed it at her.

Clumsily she caught it, spilling some beer over her shirt. Cursing under her breath, she looked at the thing he'd thrown at her. An old school flip phone. She guessed it was a prepaid. She opened it and looked at an empty screen. Opening her mouth to ask him if she needed to put his number in, he cut her off.

"It's a burner. If I got another job, I'll call you on that." Clay said before he disappeared again to the back of the building, but not before he broke the disc inside the case in three pieces.

Anne sighed. It was somewhat tiring to see so much hard work end up in broken pieces. So much effort gone in two swift motions. Taking another swig of her drink, she handed her empty glass back to Half-Sack, who seemed happy enough to refill it for her. Thanking him, Anne slumped in her seat and put the glass against her lips, trying to block out the sound of cooing women and chuckling men. She wasn't sure what she was doing here, now that everybody was distracted with girls. But she wasn't in a hurry to go to the motel room… not that she had a ride anyway.

* * *

Chibs let the truck roll onto the driveway of Teller-Morrow and put it in park. With a low grumble he gave the prospect next to him a rough shake, waking him from his nap. Lazily the prospect opened his eyes before he jumped into action and got out of the passenger's seat. Chibs pushed his sunglasses up his forehead and looked in the rear view mirror. He looked tired, more so than he usually did. No surprise, they'd been driving all day.

Taking a smoke from his pack, he lit it with the lighter in the truck, before he opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle. Giving the prospect a few claps on his back, as a sign of good work, Chibs pushed him to the door of the clubhouse. The sounds of laughing girls greeted them as he opened the door. At first, he had admitted, he could go for some free fuck, just to loose the pent up stress. No doubt would the girls be willing and easy… But at the sight of the familiar dark-blonde at the bar, his eyebrows knitted into a curious frown and he passed two giggling brunettes into the arms of the prospect next to him.

"Booze, pot and pussy, lad, you've earned it." Chibs told him with a small wink before he made a straight line to the bar.

* * *

"Thought ye would have left town by now, lass. You almost couldn't wait it seemed." a familiar accent spoke up behind her.

Surprised, yet also flustered at the sudden sound of his voice, Anne turned to look at him. A small smile worked its way to her lips. Silly how it worked like that.

"Yeah, well… I ain't in a hurry." she said as she gestured to the seat next to her, where Half-Sack slammed down a new-poured beer, right on time, "Clay offered me a job so I figured it wouldn't hurt to stay around a little longer…under SAMCRO's protection from the Mayans."

"Is that so?" Chibs asked as he took up the seat next to her and lifted the glass of beer, only to chug it in one go.

When he sat next to her, that close, she could make out his smell, that consisted out of leather, cigarettes and something stronger, though not something she could make out yet. It wasn't alcohol, but too strong to be something as body wash.

They shot each other a look, with half grimaces.

"Nothing better than having a couple of beers after a job well done, huh?"Anne stated as she took another sip. It was just a regular statement. They both looked like they could use it.

"Aye, you got it. Prospect! Two more!"

Over the night, Chibs introduced her to some other members of SAMCRO, including Bobby, Piney and some prospects. They stood around chatting around some, before Bobby took off, heading home and Piney made a beeline for the toilet. Something she really didn't want to give too much thought. Instead, she drank another beer with Chibs, hanging around at the bar. She felt a bit more at ease, now that she'd met more of the crew. After all, she was gonna stay around a little longer..

Surprisingly she had expected him to be surrounded by a croweater or two, but it seemed he declined every interaction he got offered up on. It gave her some nasty stares from the girls as they passed them by, but Anne could only smirk. It made her happy, and she was starting to figure out why she didn't want other girls to touch him. For some reason she'd set her mind on having him. For herself. At least for a night. How long has it been that she'd touched someone in that way? She'd spend so much time running and working jobs that she actually forgot to keep track.

"Wanna know where Half-Sackie here got his name?" Chibs asked as he tapped the ashes of his cigarette into an ashtray, "Tell her, Half-Sack. And two more pints, lad, keep up."

Half-Sack grinned a little sheepishly as he poured them some more drinks and handed them to them. He wiped his wet hands on his pants and turned a little crimson, grinning still.

"I got one of my nuts shot in Iraq." he stated with a grin, and it sounded like he was a little proud of it as well.

Anne's expression turned into something that showed pain and sympathy. She'd watched some video clips of guys falling with their nuts on rails during skateboarding, or snowboarding, that alone looked painful as fuck. Let alone getting one of them _shot_.

"Ouch… Jesus, I'm sorry, Half-Sack. I mean, eh.. now I feel bad for calling you that, I guess. Got any other name?" she asked.

"Epps. Edward, actually, but no one calls me that. Half-Sack is fine. It grew on me after time." he said, before he turned to pour some more beer for a small group of croweaters who Anne recognized being with Tig.

"Cheerful kid. He got some spirit doesn't he?" Anne said to Chibs, clearly impressed.

"Aye, that he does. He's a fine prospect, a good lad. Brought him in myself. Got a lot to learn but at least he's not a complete dimwit." Chibs said with a laugh. Anne could tell that behind that tough exterior, humiliating jokes and remarks, he cared deeply for the boy.

Anne took another sip from her beer as she peered around the room. It seemed that most of the members of the MC had nicknames. Half-Sack, Chibs, Piney, Juice. Had it something to do with protecting their identity, or was it just something that they simply acquired in their years around the MC?

She figured she had plenty of time to get to know about all that. For now she just wanted to focus on an evening that turned out to be quite pleasant.

Chibs tapped the ashes from his cigarette into the ashtray on the bar, before he looked at her again. Now that he wasn't wearing his shades, she could finally see the dark of his eyes. They were so dark, it was hard to see where his pupils ended or began. She'd seen eyes like that before, and they had always frightened her, but his were surprisingly gentle and calm. It was strange how they mismatched the rest of his face, rough, wild and scarred.

It took her a moment before she'd caught his question. Averting her gaze from his face, she took a big sip of her drink, trying to act like she hadn't been studying him.

"Sorry, what did you ask me?"

"Where you'd came from before ye landed here in this shite town. A lass that young out there by herself? Got to be gnarly story..." Chibs said as he killed his cigarette in the ashtray.

"Oh, it's a long story, I won't bother you with that one." Anne said as she tried to avert the subject, "I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory, right? Woman stealing stuff? Broke, homeless and on the run." she added with a small grin, trying to pass it off as a joke.

"Are ye? On the run?" Chibs asked casually as he took another sip from his drink.

"I'm a thief. I'm always on the run." Anne said, twirling the coaster under her lifted drink in circles on the bar.

"Ye know that's not what I mean, lass-"

"What's your story?" she said, cutting him off. Leaning backwards lazily, she looked at her drink as she started to swirl it around too, just like the coaster before. One could tell Anne wasn't really a person to dig up the past with. What's done was done. No need to look back if it wasn't necessary. In the life she was living right now, there wasn't even room to look back. If she did that too often, it might catch up with her and that would be the end of her.

"How does a Scot find his way here?" she tried again.

Anne could almost feel the mood darken, as she chanced a look beside her. Chibs was hunched over his drink, toying with his lighter as he seemed to think about what to say. That, or he hadn't heard her.

"I got everything taken from me by a jealous bastard who wanted to set an example. Took my family, house and exiled me from the true IRA. SAMCRO Belfast chapter took me in and send me through to here. That's the short version…" Chibs said, trying to keep it light.

"Well shit, now I feel bad for asking." Anne said as she sighed, before she shot him a curious look. "Is he the one responsible for the scars on your cheeks?"

"Aye, that too." Chibs admitted.

"Fuck, I'm sorry."

Anne truly felt horrible she'd asked him about it. Some things were better staying buried. She couldn't imagine what it was like to lose everything like that. Did that mean the MC was everything he had got left?

"Ey!" Tig called from behind them, slurring slightly and almost whacking Anne on the head with his empty beer glass as he tried to put an arm around her shoulders "Me and- and...the ladies here are gonna have some...some fun. Wanna join, sweet-...sweet cheeks?"

Anne gave him an incredulous look, doubting if she was gonna break out in laughter or just let him embarrass himself some more. He smelled terrible of alcohol and if she'd guessed this morning that the look in his eyes couldn't be more nasty, she was proven wrong just now.

"No thanks, Tig. You eh… you have fun." Anne said apprehensively, pushing away his arm. The empty beer glass slipped from Tig's fingers and fell to the floor with a dull sound, before it rolled away.

Nodding lazily, Tig stepped away and into the arms of two croweaters, who seemed to be kind of relieved Anne wasn't going to join the party.

"Is he gonna be okay?"Anne asked Chibs as she watched them shuffle to the back of the building.

"Aye, he'll live. He's used to this. That's the MC life for ye." Chibs answered as he lit another cigarette, "Prospect! Bring out the heavy booze, c'mon lad. Juicey-boy! Get over here, ye prick!"

She gave Chibs a sideways grin as she picked up Tig's empty glass and handed it to Half-Sack. If MC life was indeed this rowdy, she wondered just how anyone could get used to it. Maybe it was something that grew on one over time. Like everything in Charming it seemed.

* * *

Anne barely remembered anything from her ride back to her motel room. Everything had been kind of a blur. She could remember entering a drinking contest with Chibs and Juice, slamming away shots like it had been water. It was probably what had put her in this state in the first place.

As Half-Sack rolled the car into the parking lot that belonged to Teller-Morrow Automotive, Anne had to push herself from her seat to get a move on. The sun shone brightly and it irritated her. She gave Half-Sack a grumbling 'thank you', which he probably didn't deserve for all his good efforts, but Anne couldn't help it at the moment.

"Good morning sunshine!" Tig called out from the garage, dressed in a blue uniform with a 'Teller-Morrow' badge sewed across the chest.

"How the _hell_ can you be that bubbly in the morning?" She asked, as she made her way over to him and sat down on an unoccupied chair in the garage.

"Bobby's hangover cupcakes, if they don't cure a damn hangover, I don't know what will. Got all these 'special' weeds in it, you know?" Tig answered as he started to work on an old car again.

"I bet." She snorted as she watched Gemma enter the garage.

The woman looked devilish stylish for her age. Dressed in a leather jacket and with a pair of dark pink sunglasses on her face, she definitely looked the part of being a biker boss' Old Lady. Multiple rings adored her fingers, though not ones that carried huge gems, just big ones.

"I heard you stayed around." Gemma stated as she walked up to her, offering her a smoke. "Clay told me. Well, I practically dragged it out of him when I saw you hanging around the clubhouse like that yesterday, even though you seemed in such a damn hurry..."

The small threat in her words about hanging around the clubhouse didn't went past Anne. She knew Gemma watched the place like a hawk.

It surprised the blonde though that Clay told his Old Lady that much. She figured club business was kind of...club business? Were all those Old Lady's that well informed or just the head matriarch? Anne declined the cigarette with a small gesture of her hand and a shake of her head. She wasn't sure she could stomach those after last night. Gemma grinned a little.

"Yeah, he made an offer that was hard to refuse, really." Anne said, not really wanting to tread into detail, "Thanks for the bag of clothes by the way. I really needed them…I'll make sure to return them to you washed and folded when I have the chance to go shopping for some of my own…"

Gemma nodded, though a small smile still stuck on her lips as she sucked on her cigarette.

"Don't worry about it. It was nothing, just a couple of hand-me-downs." She said, though Anne could tell she was pleased with the offer. Soon enough, the Old Lady Matriarch disappeared into the small office next to the garage again, closing the door behind her.

Anne watched Tig work on the car some more before she quirked a smile.

"So how was that 'after party' yesterday?" She asked him.

Tig's head appeared from the other side of the car, a big grin plastered on his lips.

"Oh you missed out, doll face. It was very fun."

Anne huffed as she wove away his comment. Not that she had expected any other response from this man, but she could do without the innuendo's. Crossing her arms, she watched the parking lot, as cars and bikes dripped in one by one. Repairs, picking up cars, check ups, it seemed that Teller-Morrow Automotive had enough customers to keep it going. And most of them seemed to be on good foot with Gemma too.

No one could deny Gemma was in charge of this place. She ordered the mechanics around, gave Tig a rant when he lost some important papers and made sure the customers drove home with a smile and repaired vehicle. Anne felt pretty useless hanging around there all day but she felt like she didn't really had a choice. After all, the deal was to protect her and she didn't want to make it any more difficult than it already was. Still, Anne figured she was going to need 'a normal' day job if she was going to pay her motel room and some clothes of her own. The money she made with her occasional heists or two was nice, but too irregular. Besides, if the crime rates suddenly went up with her new in town, she was sure she wouldn't go undiscovered long.

Eyeing the morning paper on one of the workbenches in the garage, she asked Tig if she could take it. He didn't really gave her a clear answer, occupied by the vehicle he was working on, so she picked up the paper anyway and made her way over to one of the benches outside. Skipping the first few pages, she eyed the job section. Realtor, accountant, all kinds of thing one would've needed papers for. Papers she didn't have.

"Well, shit." she sighed as she put the paper down after reading a job offer for a regular police officer. That obviously wasn't happening.

"Looking for a job, hon?" Gemma asked her as she sat down on the spot next to her.

"Yeah, I figured I need to make some money in my time here. Problem is, I didn't really went to college so most of these jobs are out of my league." Anne said as she gestured to the page she was holding.

"Mhhm..." Gemma said as she lit a cigarette, "Got a drivers license, sweetheart?"

"European and American." Anne said, "Unfortunately I don't know much about mechanics, else I'd ask you for a job interview at Teller-Morrow."

She chuckled lowly as she closed the paper, folded it in half and threw it next to her with an exasperating sigh.

"I wasn't asking about your knowledge about mechanics, now was I?" Gemma stated as she tapped the ashes from her smoke, "Are you organized?"

"Definitely. I'm a planner and I like to keep things tidy when I work." Anne said, thinking about how she prepared every small heist.

"Got any references from previous jobs?"

Anne snorted a little, thinking about the thievery she'd done for former employers. Cars, jewelry, documents. Even before she started to work as a thief she doubted her references would do any good in this small protected town.

Anne shook her head, "Not any that would be helpful. Why are you asking me this? Got a lead for me?"

Gemma looked at her, killing the cigarette under her heel before she leaned back casually.

"I could use some help with the paperwork and use an extra person for the towing. I'll talk to Clay to put you on our pay roll. It doesn't pay millions but it's something. I need your ID and bank account tomorrow so I can make everything ready."

"Shit, Gemma, really? You'd do that? You barely even know me!" Anne said, her eyes big and anxious at the offer, "It would be a big help."

"I can tell you're a dedicated woman and I know you need to stay close to the Sons. This is as close as you can get with a normal job. I need some extra hands, you're without a job. Two birds killed by one damn stone. Let's just see how it goes. If it doesn't work out, I'll fire your ass anyway." Gemma said as she stood from the bench.

She put the sunglasses on top of her nose again and looked at Anne.

"Tomorrow, eight thirty in the morning. Don't be late."

Anne confirmed it, feeling a bit more at ease now that she knew she could actually make herself useful. Sitting and watching others doing work is fun at holidays, not when you knew these guys were out protecting your ass when things could go south with a snap of one's fingers. It felt like being a burden to them. And Anne hated becoming a liability or a burden.

"Oh and Anne?" Gemma asked as she turned around once more, "If I find one fucking car part of ours missing or on the black market, I'll have your head."

Anne chuckled. Yeah, Gemma definitely was the one in charge.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think :)


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hello everybody! I had time to put together another chapter for you. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks to Llama5, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sons of Anarchy or its characters.

* * *

Working at Teller-Morrow proved to be something Anne just needed. Over the days she started to feel more useful. The pay wasn't indeed rich but it was enough to keep the motel room and some basic needs. She tried to help out around the garage wherever she could without being in the way. Even if it was just to have something to do. She talked to customers, towed cars with one of the Sons and made sure every paper was where it was supposed to be. She didn't know how Gemma had done this before, but the office seemed more neat now as well. It seemed the woman appreciated her efforts, she was less curt with her and more welcoming.

Turning the tow truck into the parking lot, Anne put it in park before she jumped out of the driver's seat, gesturing Lowell, one of the mechanics, to do the same. She slammed the door shut behind her and let Jax and Juice unhook the car behind it. They whistled between their teeth as they looked at the ruined car. The entire roof was crushed in, scratches all over the blue paint.

"Damn, what happened?" Jax said as he pulled a smoke from his pocket and lit it.

"Tree fell on it." Anne said casually as she looked at the damage, "Gemma told the owner you guys could fix it. Good luck with that."

Juice and Jax rolled their eyes, which made Anne grin a little. She knew Gemma was sometimes hard on the boys, but it was clear she didn't do it just to be a pest. She loved the boys of SAMCRO, that was obvious.

She pulled a pack of cigarettes from her leather jacket and lit one as she walked up to the small office. Lowell soon took off, taking his bag with him. Anne shook her head, that man was as damaged as the car they had brought in, be it in another way. She knew he had a kid, he'd told her when they worked together for their first time. But he also used to be a junkie, he had as much told her. It didn't make him a bad person but Anne had to admit she felt a little bad for the man and his kid.

Opening the door of the office, she chucked the keys of the tow truck to Gemma, who caught them with one hand while being on the phone. Anne looked through the window that gazed upon the garage and smirked. Her favorite Scotsman was working on a hideous looking maroon bike. She could tell it wasn't his own, since he was wearing his overall, and he slung a stream of Gaelic curses at the thing when it wouldn't start. Anne cracked an amused grin.

She and Chibs had grown a lot closer since the last time at the bar. It helped that Anne was making herself useful at TM as well now, so they saw each other more often. They spend their spare moments having a beer, smoking or playing a game of cards. Chibs would teach her some foreign card games that she couldn't remember the rules of, or he changed them every time. That wouldn't actually surprise her. Either way, she never won and it was getting on her nerves.

"Anne, can you lock up today? I need to get to the hospital, Abel and his damn junkie mom." Gemma said as she put down the phone.

"Yeah sure," Anne said as she quickly killed her cigarette in a nearby ashtray, "do what you have to do."

Ah, Wendy and Abel. Gemma had told her some about situation. She often took an hour or so to drop by the hospital, mostly to visit Abel. Anne got the feeling Gemma didn't really like Wendy, she never really spoke fondly of her. Obviously Jax didn't know that she knew but she wondered how he could be so calm in this all. If he had just an ounce of stress, about the situation, he certainly didn't show it.

"Thanks. If you need anything, let me know ok?" Gemma said, before she started to gather her stuff.

Anne just nodded before she grabbed today's schedule. There weren't anymore towing jobs to do. Just a couple of customers coming back for their vehicles. Her eyes matched the right papers with the right keys on the board across of them. Anne bit on the inside of her cheek before she looked up from the schedule.

"Listen, Gemma. I really wanna thank you for giving me this job." Anne said as she caught a glimpse of Gemma at the door, "You have no idea how much it helps."

"You're welcome... If you really want to thank me though, drop by next Friday for dinner." Gemma said as she put her sunglasses up.

"Dinner?" Anne said, obviously confused.

"We have one every week. Just have one of the prospects drop you off, or something. It's all SAMCRO family, dear, so you'll be safe enough." Gemma said with a smile before she disappeared.

Anne knitted her eyebrows into a small confused frown as she watched Gemma reverse out of the parking lot in her shiny black car. She guessed it must've cost a fortune…Admittedly she liked to take it for a spin, but she was getting sidetracked. What was that about dinner? She wasn't that close to being SAMCRO-family right? The only reason she still stuck around was because of the Mayan threat and the deal she made with Clay. That didn't made her family just like that. Wasn't it weird for her to show up to an occasion like that?

"Alrigh' so that maroon piece of shite is just done for. It won't start!" Chibs barked frustrated as he entered the office, wiping his smudged hands on a cloth, "Gimme the phone, I'll call the owners, tell 'em to fucking dump this one."

Anne tossed him the wireless office phone, before she remembered she needed to check her own. Not the burner Clay gave her, but the one she usually used. Fishing it out of her backpack, she looked at the screen, smirking at the message on it.

TM's pay had been adequate enough to pay for her basic needs, but it was always good to have a little extra. Extra cash meant more possibilities and more emergency funds. Not entirely a luxury with her shady second job. She was lucky the chief of Charming's Police Department was on Clay's payroll, as a side business, and not hot on her trail. Clay did warn her about deputy chief Hale though, seems like he was willing to put this town to right again and wasn't as 'dirty' as Unser.

Within days she'd been able to tap into Charming's black market Gemma had mentioned the other day. It seemed it was the best platform to offer/ take jobs and get connected. No faces, no names, no bank accounts. Just hard cash for shady jobs and items.  
The man contacting her on her phone wanted his car to 'disappear' for insurance money. He was having a rough time, though he did have the money to pay her, even though barely. The man himself lacked the courage to make his own car 'disappear' and stated that 'the less he knew about it, the better it was for the later investigation', something Anne could agree on.

' _Tonight'_ the text read.

Anne looked at Chibs, who was still busy trying to convince the owners on the other side of the phone to 'buy another goddamn bike' instead of keeping this one. For a moment she wondered if she should intervene before she decided it was just how he was. If they had a complaint, they'd end up with her and she'd calm the whole shit down.

Quickly she typed on her phone, telling her employer to leave the cash in the glove department and that she'd take care of it in the night.

"I fuckin' hate these people. No idea what they're doin'. Not a clue about motorcycles. Probably a gift for their stuck-up laddy." Chibs grumbled as he put the phone down and took out a cigarette out of his pack, lighting it with a spare lighter on Gemma's desk.

Anne looked at him, obviously amused with his anger. Her eyes scanned over his form, leaning against the doorpost to the garage. His arms were covered in sud and oil smudges, muscles hiding underneath. He wasn't flashy muscular like Jax or Juice, but she could tell Chibs was quite strong. The overall from Teller-Morrow Automotive was kind of shapeless but he made it work for some reason, though she'd rather see him in his regular MC gear.

She didn't know why she found him so attractive. She never had a thing for older men and Chibs was easily 10-15 years older than her. Maybe even more? Still, the age difference didn't bother her as much to kill her need to put her hands on him. For some reason his whole being called up on some carnal desire in the pits of her own being.

Tearing her gaze away she looked at the time and the parking lot. Slowly owners of fixed cars were coming in, to pick up their vehicles again. Anne got up from her chair and chucked her phone back in her backpack, before she started to rummage around the board with keys.

"Just a little bit longer, Chibs. Almost time for a beer." she teased as she gathered up the forms.

"Aye, well deserved too, I'd say." Chibs said before he walked back to the garage.

* * *

In the deep dark of the night she walked down a random street of Charming. The houses looked the same, like someone had copy and pasted them. It seemed it wasn't a neighborhood for her, not that she would be ever able to afford it. Luxury homes, she dubbed it, as she watched the gates and the cars that stood on the driveways.

Half-Sack had brought her to the motel room and she'd asked him to leave her alone for a while. She snuck out the bathroom window, on the back of the building. Last she needed with this job was a Son following her every move, as terrified she was of the Mayans. She figured it was worth the risk, she'd only go outside of Charming's borders for 5 minutes. If shit went down, she'd turn the car straight to the clubhouse, see how the Mayans would respond to that. At some point she had to muster up some bravery, she couldn't hide behind the Sons' back forever.

It didn't take her long enough to find the right house, with the dark BMW. It was a new model, and for a moment Anne wondered just how this man had been able to afford it, if his financial situation was that shit.

She decided it was not her problem and lifted her left arm to check her watch under the streetlight. 2 in the morning, the perfect time for theft. Most of the people would be in bed, long enough to be asleep deeply.

She let her eyes glace over the houses surrounding her lonely figure on the streets. All the lights were off and there was a deafening silence. It made her think of winter nights, where the only sound could be snow falling from the trees, even though it was about 61 degrees Fahrenheit right now.

From her purse she took a crowbar-like tool. Normally she'd go for something much more subtle but she knew that this had to look like a break in, even though there wouldn't be much left of the car after she was done with it. A few convenient scratches on the paint might do the trick. The man had been clear: it needed to look like someone stole it and damaged it beyond repair.

It took her mere seconds before she'd manage to open the door. Sliding into the driver's seat, she grinned at the feel of the leather seat underneath her. Her gloved hands worked their way up the wheel, enjoying it in her hands for a moment, before she got back to business again. Quickly she checked the glove department where she found a thick brown envelope. Grinning, she picked it up and quickly checked the money inside. She placed it inside her purse before she took out a flathead screwdriver and jammed it inside the contact of the car.

* * *

Passing the border of Charming at a normal speed, Anne made sure to check her surroundings before her foot stomped on the gas pedal. The car reacted with immediate speed, spurting forward with a small purring sound. It was almost a shame she couldn't keep this car for herself.

The car easily jumped up to speed, exceeding the maximum miles per hour with almost a sigh. Anne could feel her stomach tighten as she felt the several knots of nervousness pop up again. The highway was straight enough but she knew that in a mile or two was the car's graveyard: a small set of trees. In her head she counted the seconds, planning out the moment she had to open the door and roll out. It was going to hurt, beyond doubt, and she figured her shoulder would take another blow, but the pay was worth it.

10 seconds left.

She kept her foot on the gas pedal as the set of trees became visible on the dark horizon of the road. Biting her bottom lip, Anne grabbed her purse with one hand, putting it on her lap. With a click, she undid her seat belt. The car buzzed underneath her with a pleasant hum, no idea what it was in for.

5 seconds left.

In her head, she started to clear her mind of any doubts, unhelpful thoughts and doom scenario's. The trees loomed up dangerously fast, as the car closed in on its destination. Taking in a deep breath, Anne pulled her bag with her as she let go of the gas, opened the door and dropped herself.

Gravel and pain was the only thing she felt for a moment as her world tumbled around her. It felt like she was inside a washing machine, being tossed over and over, before she came to a halt, sitting up on the asphalt. Her silhouette was suddenly lightened by a blinding source of light and a deafening sound on her eardrums. She could feel almost feel the heat of the explosion was over her frame, before she watched as a spare tire rolled away on the lone road.

Hoisting her purse on her shoulder, she gave herself a small dust off, ignoring the small pinches of pain she felt from the tumble and the asphalt. Soon enough this place would be visited by a cop, she had no intention on staying.

Quickly she got a move on, hoisting the backpack on her shoulder. She eyed the wreckage one more time again, before she grinned contently.

Lighting a cigarette, she took to the side of the road as she made her way back to the border of Charming. Biting down on the butt of the smoke, she took off the gloves and tossed them in her bag.

* * *

It didn't took long before she caught sight of a familiar car. It was driving towards her and lowered speed as soon as the driver recognized her.

"Shit." she muttered as she killed the cigarette under her shoe.

"Tha's an inconvenient place for a bonfire, don't ya think, lass?" Chibs asked her as he rolled the window down of the passenger's seat and looked at her through his sunglasses. She could tell by his smirk that he was slightly amused.

Anne lowered herself to look at the driver. Half-Sack gave her half a grin, though she could see some guilt on his face. She gave him a dead look before she sighed.

"Aye, don't blame it on the prospect. Half-Sackie here was freaked out beyond shite when he discovered you gone. Thought the Mayans had gotten to ye." Chibs said as he gestured to the back of the car, "C'mon lass, get in, so we can go back to TM."

With a little reluctance, she opened the door of the backseat and slid in, putting her purse next to her. Half-Sack soon turned the car and drove them back to the clubhouse. Chibs turned around in his seat and looked at her purse, where the crowbar-looking tool was clearly visible.

"So, either you can't drive or that was a side job? Did Clay put ye up to tha'?" he asked.

Anne shook her head, "Nah, black market job offer. TM's pay is fine but I wanted to make some extra."

"Black market?" Half-Sack said from behind the wheel, "I didn't even know Charming had one."

Anne pursed her lips as she looked at the young boy through the rear view mirror.

"Every town has a black market, if you're willing to look for it."

* * *

Meanwhile, Chibs turned back in his seat and took a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it with his zippo. He sighed as he rolled down the window and looked at the figure in the back through the side mirror. It was adjusted just enough to see her right side of her face.

Her face was pretty, he had decided. It wasn't overly covered in make up, like the croweaters and sweetbutts at the clubhouse. It had something natural, even though he could see she used some make up. Still, he couldn't put a finger as to what he found so pretty about it. Maybe it were her rosy cheeks, still glowing from adrenaline, or the way she could look _so_ terribly annoyed at Half-Sack, even though he knew she didn't mean it, not really. Or those vibrant green eyes that made eye contact with him through the mirror.

Slightly praying she hadn't seen him staring at her, he turned his gaze to the passing view outside. There was something hiding in those emerald orbs. Something was simmering inside that woman.

Oh he had caught her looking at him, back at TM, when he had been in the office. To be honest, that maroon bike wasn't as fucked as he made her believe it was. It was just a good excuse to be in the office with her and lose his pent up anger over fixing the bike.

He didn't mind young women. After all, the croweaters and sweetbutts at the club weren't that old. Chibs had to admit though, even though a little begrudgingly, that those were just meaningless and drunk fucks. Meant to loose the tension, energy and just to loose himself in, even if it was for just a night. They didn't mean anything to him.

He wondered how it would feel though, if he would touch Anne that way. Caressing her soft yet voluptuous form, running his hand through her blonde hair. Would she hum in approval, sigh in content and become weak in his arms? As much as he wanted it, he doubted it. Women her age were probably more suited for Juice, maybe even Jax.

Chibs tossed the butt of his cigarette out of the window, before he chanced another look at Anne from the side mirror. Her blonde hair was tangled from her tumble out of the car. He longed to turn around in his seat and tug it back behind her ear but fought it.

* * *

Arriving at TM, Half-Sack put the car in park and waited for Chibs to get out. As Anne gathered her belongings, Half-Sack cleared his throat and looked at her through the rear view mirror.

"Anne, I'm sorry. You were gone so suddenly, I thought something had happened to you, under my watch. Clay would've kill me if it had. I had to do _something_." he said, almost pleading.

Anne nodded before she put a hand on the prospect's shoulder. She understood it from his point of view. He couldn't help that he would get in her way if he'd tagged along. Not only would that been a problem for herself, but also for SAMCRO. From what she'd seen they maintained an 'ok' reputation in town, and she didn't want to ruin that by taking their prospect to all kind of shady jobs.

"I understand, Half-Sack. It's ok." she said before she opened the door of the backseat and followed after Chibs.

The clubhouse was a lot more emptier now than the last time she visited it. Only a few members of SAMCRO were present at at least two third of the sweetbutts were not around. Anne had to admit that she felt more at ease like that. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was the middle of the night.

To be frank, she didn't really know herself what they were doing there at a time like this but she kind of let Chibs and Half-Sack let the lead. She had no other place to be anyway. TM was closed the next day and Clay hadn't given her a new job yet. There wasn't a real other reason for her to be in bed right now, other than the feeling of exhaustion. She was still so pumped up on adrenaline right now though that she figured it would take a long while before that would set in.

Anne sat herself down at her one of the bar stools and let Chibs pour her a beer. Half-Sack sauntered in and flopped himself down at one of the couches. Bobby joined them at the bar, as did Opie, a member she had gotten to know the past few days. He looked much rougher than he was. All in all he was kind of a sweet man, just proud. Like most of the men of SAMCRO, Anne figured.

They chatted for a moment, laughing at whatever the day had brought each of them. Anne didn't really put a thought to how she might've looked, after she rolled out of the sped up car like that, until Bobby remark it.

"Hey, you alright? It seems you're bleeding. Shoulder." he said gruffly as he pointed at her shoulder where she'd been shot a week ago.

Anne knitted her eyebrows together in confusion before she touched the fabric of her dark green sweater. It was wet and she could make out the dark stains. She hadn't even felt it opening up but she guessed it must've happened in her tumble. Or in the aftermath of it.

"Ah, crap." she sighed frustrated before she put down her beer, jumping from her seat to look at her sweater in the mirror behind the bar, "It's open again. Gotta be with all that blood."

"We still have some gauze around here. There's a first aid kit behind the bar." Opie said, "Just bandage alone won't cover that, if its open again."

Anne sighed, knowing that Opie spoke the truth. She probably needed to change the bandages and put extra gauze on it to stop it from bleeding. Adding in the fact that she just drank a beer or two that made the blood flow extra quick, she needed to change it as soon as possible.

"Chibs, you check out that wound, it might get infected or something. I don't know what missy here has been up to, but you can tell she's been rolling in the dirt outside just by looking at her." Bobby said.

When Chibs didn't move, Bobby rolled his deep eyes at him before he shoved the first aid kit against Chibs' arms, impatient.

"Oh come on, you're the only one who's a medic here." he added.

"Jesus Christ, Bobby, 5 months in military and suddenly I'm a doctor. Anyone can put on fucking gauze and bandages. Alrigh' lass, let's get ye patched up." Chibs said, finally caving.

He took the first aid kit and pulled Anne with him by her good arm, dragging her to the back of the building.

Doors lined the back, all closed at the moment. Anne looked in wonder at the motorcycle, snugly tucked away in the recess of the wall. Pictures hung around it, portraying members of SAMCRO, and people she'd never seen before. It looked some kind of a memory wall. Maybe that was exactly what it was.

"Where are you taking me?" Anne asked as she finally tore her gaze from the motorcycle and allowed Chibs to lead her further down the hallway.

"My room. No peepers that way." he answered shortly, "Got to give ye some privacy _some_ way."

"You don't have a house in Charming?" she asked him as they halted at the second to last one.

"Never thought I'd need a whole place to myself. Just useless space catching dust. I'm here most o' the time anyway." he said he fished his keys out of the back pocket of his jeans.

He unlocked the door, revealing a small yet cozy enough room with adjourned bathroom. It was soberly decorated, a few closets, a plaited couch and a double bed. Books about bikes and mechanics were stacked neatly on the desk, the rug a little stained by what she thought was beer, whiskey and cigarette burns. She had to admit though, the Scottish flag above the bed took the prize: it was a true eye catcher.

"You can sit on the bed if you want, leave the bloodied clothes on the floor, it's fucked already anyway. I'll give ye some room." Chibs told her before he stepped into the bathroom.

Right. She completely forgot about the part that he actually had to have access to the wound. Covered underneath the layers of her clothes, Anne could feel a small red color flash over her face. Stupidly enough she hadn't kept that in mind.

* * *

Coming out of that bathroom with a straight face in this situation was kind of hard for Chibs. Sure he had seen a hundred girls naked, from all sides. Then why did it felt different to see her unclad back? It took all he had to just calm himself down and take control in the bathroom, washing his hands and his face a million times, before Anne called that she was ready. He swore that he was going to kill Bobby for pushing them into this. Not that he minded, it was something he had been thinking about in the car, and before, but it was so...sudden.

She sat on the bed, back towards him. She'd undone all her top clothing. Chibs counted the sweater, a shirt and a tank top on the floor, topped by the bloody bandages. That meant she was clutching her bra in her hands, if she wore one at all. The though of that alone made Chibs' focus unsteady.

At the first glimpse of her body, he found himself smirking lightly. She had milky skin, often dotted with a stray mole. God, how he couldn't wait to put his hand on her skin, just to feel it. She'd put her hair up so it wouldn't be in the way, but the only thing he could think about was the spot in the middle of the back of her neck. How he wanted to kiss it, as his hands entangled themselves in those blonde wavy locks that fell like waves past her shoulders normally.

It was a carnal desire that he wanted to act upon, but couldn't for some reason. Were it some sweetbutt or croweater, he'd have torn them apart long ago already. But she wasn't a sweetbutt or croweater. She was made for much more. To slowly enjoy, not to ravish at the sight.

"Well, how does it look?" she asked him, a little concern in her voice.

 _Absolutely glorious._ But that wasn't an answer he could give to her. Nor the one she was probably looking for. He just had to suck it up and deal with it. His personal frustrations were an issue for later.

"Aye, it's reopened alrigh'." Chibs said, jolting himself back to what he was _supposed_ to do.

He took one of the gauze's from the kit and wet it with water from the bathroom. Slowly he began to dab at the streaks of red that had came falling from her wound. From this distance he could make out her scent. Some sweet scent, probably from shampoo, mixed with cigarettes and fire, probably from the explosion earlier.

"You were in the military?" he heard Anne asked him, he supposed in an attempt to make this situation less awkward.

His time at the military had been brief but he figured it hadn't been his thing anyway. He felt more comfortable as an outlawed biker, be it for SAMBEL or SAMCRO. Though, after spending so many years at Charming, he had to admit he didn't really remember what his time at SAMBEL was like. It seemed that he left those memories behind in Belfast, like the rest of his previous life. Far, but not forgotten.

"Aye, I was." he answered shortly as he focused back at the task at hand, "Not too long though. Figured the job wasn't for me." Anne gave a small chuckle.

After removing the excess blood, he examined the wound, though nothing that seemed worth worrying. It looked fine for now, from what he could deduct with 'all' his military medic experience. Quickly placing a new gauze on it and tapping her arm in a way to signal it for her to lift it, he tried to take a peek along her side, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of her tits, but no such luck. Quickly he bandaged it, trying to cover up the fact that he just tried to peep at her. If Anne had noticed at all, she didn't let it know.

"Alrigh' that should do it. Ye doin' okay, lass?" he asked her as he started to clean up.

"Yeah I'm good." Anne said, "It feels better at least."

"Good. Here." Chibs said as he tossed her a sweater from a nearby chair, "Those other clothes need to be washed first. I'll give ye some room."

Without giving Anne as much as a glance as he passed her by, even though he desperately wanted to, he made for the door of his room and exited as soon as he could. The sooner he was out of that room, the better. His self control was slowly crumbling and he didn't want to spook her by doing unexpected things with her.

Why was this woman making his head all so fucked up?

* * *

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Hello all! Here's a new chapter of the story. I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sons of Anarchy or its characters.

* * *

"You ready to go?" she heard Juice's voice from her motel room.

"Yeah, just a moment." Anne called out from the bathroom, before she put on a shirt, covering the bandages on her shoulder.

Anne had felt pretty awkward in Chibs' room as he had taken care of her wound. Even after it seemed that she couldn't quite get rid of the embarrassment of the situation, though nothing had really happened. She'd just sit there, half naked as he had treated  
her. It had been so...awkward. She'd finished her beer that night and had asked Half-Sack to drive her back.

Though, she figured it was all for the best. Chibs had even wrapped the bandages up tight and snug, better than she could've done herself. Even if he had been in the military just for 5 months, it paid off.

She gathered her belongings and tossed them in her backpack before she slid into her leather jacket. Picking up the sweater Chibs had been kind enough to borrow her, Anne paused. It smelled like him. Leather, cigarettes and the same unknown heavy scent  
she could smell on him when he was close. Even after washing it, the scent still stuck.

She crumpled the sweater in her hands and inhaled deeply before she put it down. Her plan was to return it to him today, but she found it hard to part from. Would it hurt to hang on to it for just another day? For all she knew, he didn't even miss it.

She stepped inside the car with Juice, having him drive them to Teller-Morrow Automotive, where another day of working would wait for her.

Back at the garage, things were as busy as ever. Towing, paperwork and instructing mechanics had become a routine part of the job. She had a sense that she was getting pretty good at these things and Gemma seemed to be pleased too. The woman had become  
more comfortable with leaving Anne in charge whenever she went to the hospital to visit Abel.

Putting forms of the new brought in vehicles in their rightful folders, she sat down at the couch, staring at the wall filled with sticky notes. She'd had some time to study them weeks ago, when she started this job. They all contained contact information  
from either customers or companies, useful tips about mechanics and vehicles and sometimes even a silly drawing. At first she'd found the wall hideous but now she couldn't imagine the office without it. It was kind of messy, and it suited the place.

The sound of clicking heels told her that Gemma was on her way to the office and Anne looked out of the window. She pursed her lips. The matriarch didn't look to happy, a small serious frown on her face as she entered the office.

"You alright?" Anne asked her as she watched Gemma flop down in her seat at the desk.

"Yeah, I'm fine, sweetheart, just some family business." Gemma said to her as she put her sunglasses down.

Anne decided not to pry any further. She was finally on good terms with the woman, and she wasn't searching for a way to rustle her jimmies.

Getting up from her seat, she turned to the window that looked out on the workplace. Chibs was working today, with Bobby. She'd been kind of avoiding him after he treated her wound. Not that she had an actual reason to, after all it had been all kind  
of harmless, but she couldn't find a way to talk to him without thinking about how awkward it had been.

But she kind of felt empty, not talking to him. Funny how someone could have such an impact on her. She barely knew the guy, despite their friendly chats and beers. Unfortunately that was all it had been, 'friendly'. She had to admit to herself, although  
reluctantly, that she wanted more. That she'd expected more out of that moment in his room, as fucked up as it sounded in her head. Her head was all confused and it clashed with her heart.

She pried open the blinds a bit, with her fingers, giving her more view of the workplace. Chibs disappeared out of view for a second but reappeared soon enough, closer to the blinds than she expected him to and she quickly released her fingers from it,  
hiding the fact she'd been spying on him.

Gemma cleared her throat behind the desk and looked at her with a raised eyebrow, obviously asking her what was going on.

"Just checking on the workplace. Making sure they're not lazing around, you know." Anne lied quickly.

Maybe too quickly since Gemma just smirked and got up from her chair. She made her way over to the blinds and pried them open, her lips curling up in a sly smirk.

She gave Anne an amused look before she removed her fingers from the blinds and walked back to the desk, lighting a cigarette.

"I heard you and the Scot are growing close these days." She teased as her blew the smoke from her lips and looked at Anne in always a daring way, "He even took you to his room?"

Where did this woman got her intel at?! Were there camera's at the clubhouse. Inside even?!

"He just changed my bandages when a wound reopened." Anne retorted shortly, following Gemma's example and lighting a cigarette herself, "Nothing happened."

Gemma gave a disbelieving hum before she sorted some paperwork.

"So that's why you're avoiding him?"

"I'm not." Anne said as she looked at Chibs working form through the blinds again.

"Honey, you look like some damn smitten high school girl. Don't tell me I don't see the things when I see them very clearly." Gemma stated without looking at her, tapping the ashes from the smoke in an empty cup next to her.

* * *

She had no idea how she should've taken Gemma's statement, nor an appropriate response. Apparently the matriarch knew everything about everyone in this place and it scared her a little. She'd given Gemma no answer, figuring it was best to say nothing  
if she didn't want Gemma to hold it against her at some point again. Though she supposed a silence was an answer on its own.

Anne sighed. Stupid, she should've said something. Staying silent was the same as agreeing with the woman. It was clear to see that Gemma found that too, all through the day she sat at the office with a smile on her face. Not a genuine happy smile one  
got when things were going fine with their family, but the sly grin that told Anne that Gemma was up to something.

"Gem, I'm gonna need the keys of the van." Clay said as he stepped into the office of Teller-Morrow.

"What for?" Gemma asked casually as she took the right keys from the board on the wall and tossed them over to Clay.

"Club business." he said gruffly, gesturing behind him, obviously not feeling like spilling the beans on it.

Anne took a curious look outside, where a shifty looking man was standing. The look in the eyes of the man could only be described as sheer panic. Like a deer looking into headlights. He stood out from the members of SAMCRO – men who could handle a punch  
or two and looked the part.

"He's your business?" she stated a little confused, raising an eyebrow.

Clay hummed as he lit a cigar and stared at the anxious man. Anne shook her head, grinning a little. She wondered how such a twitchy man had ended up finding his way to the MC. More importantly, she was curious as to what they were gonna do with him.

"He's a special kind of man. Knows his way around money, you know?" Clay said as he lowered his cigar and cursed as the shifty eyed man suddenly put his hand down his pants, doing something Anne was strongly convinced belonged somewhere else but outside  
in the open.

"Jesus, what the fuck!?" Anne snorted before she turned away, trying to banish the image from her mind. It was way too disturbing than she could handle.

"Hey Chuckie! Hands above the pants!" Clay barked from the entry of the garage before he shook his head, "Jesus fucking Christ. The sooner I get rid of this fucker, the better it is. No wonder he got beat up so much in Stockton Prison."

Anne occupied herself with resorting some forms as Clay took his time to kiss Gemma goodbye. He gave Anne a small head nod before he stepped outside and almost threw Chuckie into the van. Jax, Tig and Clay followed after before they drove off.

"I don't even wanna know where they got that man or what their business is. What the actual hell..."Anne muttered, more to herself really than to Gemma. She just shook her head, slightly amused.

* * *

Gemma had soon left to town, helping out at some charity fair she'd help set up. Anne thought it was nice, it brought a more human side to the woman instead of just the sneaking and digging side she'd seen up to now. Anne had promised to look after the  
garage so Gemma could help set up her stall.

"Come by later on, okay? I'm sure you'd like it." she told Anne, who in turn had said she'd ask one of the prospects to drop her off. Surely the Mayans wouldn't do something out here in Charming, let alone at a freaking charity fair.

And it didn't take long before some of the member of SAMCRO stood at the entrance of the office, sighing and talking her into come along. At first Anne held them off by telling them she was busy but it hadn't really worked.

"Love, there aren't any orders comin' in today. There's a freakin' fair in town, who's gonna come by for a car repair? Just close the damn shop and come along." Chibs said to her, "Besides, Bobby's gonna be Elvis. Don't wanna miss out on tha'."

Anne cracked a smile at that. It was good leverage, she had to hand him that. If Bobby was going to ride his bike dressed like Elvis, she just had to see that! And Gemma had told her to drop by. Sighing, she caved in and stood from Gemma's seat, shutting  
down the computer.

She locked the door of Teller-Morrow Automotive behind her, taking the keys with her to hand back to Gemma at the fair, before she made her way over to the parking lot, expecting to take one of the cars. It wasn't up to the moment that Chibs held out  
a helmet to her that she realized that wasn't going to happen.

Blinking her eyes at the pitch black helmet for a second, she took it and weighed it in her hands.

"D'ye ride, lass?" Chibs asked her as he fastened his own helmet.

Anne shot him a slight insecure look as she hoisted her backpack on her shoulders. She gave a small nervous laugh before she shook her head.

"Only cars. Never had the opportunity to try a bike before. Never been on one." she added with slight embarrassment.

"Oh that just won't do." Chibs said, feigning disappointment, "C'me here."

Slightly reluctantly she obeyed at his clear yet friendly command. They hadn't talked a lot the past days, after the awkwardness in his room. Still, she found it so easy to connect with him. He made her feel at ease now. Maybe because she still had all  
her clothes on.

Chibs rummaged around with the helmet before he gestured to the back of his bike, where Anne swung her leg over the seat and sunk down onto the leather beneath. It felt oddly comfortable, not at all what she had imagined.

"And now ye just hold on tight." Chibs told her as he kicked his bike to life.

Immediately grabbing at his shoulders, her knuckles turned white of the strength beneath it. Maybe she was a little more anxious about this all than she made herself believe. She felt the laugh rumble through his body.

"Not like that, love, ye'd get thrown off the bike in an instant." he said to her as he placed his hands on hers and adjusted her hold, snaking them around his waist.

"Like that."

* * *

It took up a lot of courage for Chibs to convince Anne to come to the fair. Admittedly, things had been a bit...weird between them lately. Anne seemed to be avoiding him a little, though he had no actual proof of it, but at least she was searching out  
his company less actively. It told Chibs that one of them had to step up and break that restriction. If Anne wasn't going to do it, he surely was.

Night after night he found that he could barely sleep. The after image of her on his bed in his dorm was still lingering in his head. He'd lost himself in that memory. It had been a fragile moment, something Chibs only now realized. He should've asked  
one of the sweetbutts to change her bandages after all. But what was done, was done. He could whack himself over what had happened and how he should've changed it all he wanted, but it didn't get him any further. He just wanted to restore their contact.  
His days were a lot more dull without her in it, he found.

There was something vibrant about Anne. Something thrilling. That little mysteriousness added with some mischief. He loved the twinkle in her eyes when she was about to cheat on one of the card games he taught her. Or the small smirk on her beautiful  
pink colored lips when her charade had played out well enough. The way she kept the garage tidy and watched him work on the vehicles… Oh, he knew she watched him. And he let her.

Her gaze stirred up feelings in his very being that he hadn't had a long time before. Maybe in the past, when he was still happily married and with his loving family, but that was so long ago he hardly remembered it. The sweetbutts and croweaters never  
made him feel like this. He was an empty shell with them. Anne made him feel alive, like the world was far more than the bitter, ashen, flat reality that he had experienced the past years.

But nothing, _nothing_ could compare to the feeling of having her on his bike. The way her arms were wrapped tensely around his waist, how her fingers were holding onto each other, and the sound of her small excited yet scared laugh when he rode  
out of the parking lot...the slight pressure of her chest against his kutte-clad back was just a rewarding bonus.

* * *

"That was amazing!" Anne said, her eyes big from excitement, as she handed Chibs the spare helmet.

Standing on the parking lot in some park downtown Charming, Anne used the side mirror of Chibs' bike to check her hair after he'd taken the spare helmet.

"Aye, I'm happy ye enjoyed it so much." he laughed, "I think my waist needs a day or two to get rid of ye damn squeezing though. Were ye tryin' to make me cough up my lungs?"

Anne gave him a look before she grinned again. She could put up with his teasing and his jokes after being on the bike. It had been freeing. With her hair whipping after her like some flag, she had no idea that riding a bike could feel so liberating.  
The road was truly yours.

She often had made that illusion for herself when she was driving a car, but this was in no way the same. The best moment had been when Bobby, Jax and Opie had joined them halfway. There was something greatly amusing at seeing Bobby in his Elvis get-up,  
on a bike. She'd never guessed he was such an Elvis fan, but it suited him. There was something amazing at people being able to dress up and lose themselves in it like that. And the kids' reaction was definitely the result of that, it seemed they  
absolutely loved ElvisBobby.

She took a moment to stroll around the fair, taking looks at a stall every now and then before she ended with Gemma's stall.

"I'm so glad you could make it, sweetheart." Gemma said as she put scooped some chili in a bowl for her.

"Yeah, Chibs kinda convinced me, using Bobby 'the King' as leverage. Hard to resist." Anne said as she traded the keys of the garage for the bowl of chili, tossing in some cash for the charity as well.

Gemma pursed her lips, though amused, but decided not to pursue the subject any further. Instead she introduced Anne to a dear friend of hers, that went by with the name Luann. She was the Old Lady of Otto, a member of SAMCRO in Stockton Prison, so Anne  
learned.

She couldn't imagine what it must be like, being married to someone who was so unreachable at the moment. Having a husband in prison was tough, she decided, and it took a lot of strength from Luann to keep going on living her life like she did...as extraordinary  
as she did. It took a lot of courage and willpower.

At some point she caught Gemma staring down Jax, who had just come out of the gym with Opie and an unknown man. Both Opie and the man didn't seem unscathed but Anne was sure they hadn't looked like that when they arrived at the fair. Jax soon walked off  
as soon as he caught his mother's stare though. Anne tilted her head a little to the side, trying to identify the man but failing.

"Who's that?" she asked Gemma as she took another spoonful of her chili.

"Ex-member of the club. He's the reason Opie got in jail." Gemma said shortly, as she finally tore her gaze away from Jax and readied new serves of the meal she'd cooked, "He was allowed to come here to see his son play in the band tonight. You can see  
the club isn't too thrilled about it."

"Yeah I can see that." Anne said as she watched Opie and Jax join with Clay and Tig, who had arrived as well. She suddenly had a nasty feeling in her stomach, and it wasn't because of the chili. She realized that she knew so little about the club and  
their 'activities', and in a way she was tied to them too, working 'a job or two' for them, as Clay had called it.

It worried her a little. Just with whom was she cooperating? That image seemed to shift a lot in the past weeks. On one hand the Sons of Anarchy were a gang of bikers, looking out for the good of the town and its people. On the other hand she was certain  
there was something shady going on. She couldn't place her finger on it just yet, but she saw how they met up with each other, whispered amongst themselves and covered their stories.

Anne made sure to thank Gemma for the chili before she strolled around the fair some more. Waving at a customer of TM often, she offered her sweet smile to all of them. After all, her face was now tied to an official business in a small town where everybody  
seemed to know each other and rumors were quick to spread. It was better to behave and acknowledge them, than not to. At least for Gemma and the garage.

It didn't take long before Chibs made his way back over to her. He looked rather sinister, his lips twisted in a way she wasn't used to see on his face.

"I won' be able to take ye back to TM, lass. Club-"

"Club business." Anne finished for him, already guessing.

"Aye." Chibs said as he scratched himself behind his ear, "I'm sorry. I've called Half-Sack, he's coming to pick ye up later and take ye to the motel."

Anne nodded as she toyed with the plastic spoon she'd used to eat Gemma's chili. She couldn't help but be a little disappointed but if she knew _something_ about these guys, it was that they were very loyal to the club. Extremely so. But she couldn't  
let Chibs know she had been hoping for a ride back on his bike.

"I understand." she said, "Thanks."

Chibs sighed before he turned around and started to walk back to the rest of the MC, before Anne mustered up her courage and called out to him.

"Hey Chibs!"

"Aye?" Chibs said, as he turned around and looked at her.

"Take me on a ride soon again?" she asked as she smiled at him.

"Aye, you bet, love." Chibs said, this time with a little grin plastered to his face.

* * *

Half-Sack picked her up after the kids' concert was over. She barely knew them but it was fun to watch them go nuts on stage, with Gemma. It was good to see them so passionate about something, so young. She was sure the teens enjoyed every moment playing  
at the fair.

"Thanks for picking me up." Anne told the young boy as she buckled up and watched him pull out of the parking lot.

"No problem." Half-Sack said smiling as he drove them away, back to the motel.

"You're on babysitting duty often, aren't you?" she asked him, grinning as she lit a cigarette.

"Yeah." Half-sack laughed, "I guess that's a prospect's job. Too old to play withthe kids, not yet old enough to do the real stuff."

"I guess." Anne agreed, laughing.

After a laugh or two in the car, about Half-Sack's past, about the stuck up snobs at the fair, the motel appeared soon enough. Half-Sack put the car in park and got out, locking the vehicle behind them as Anne opened the door of her motel room.

The moment she stepped inside, she knew something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. Quickly, she smacked on the light.

The place was trashed. Her mattress was upside down,obviously teared apart judging by the cuts on it, feathers were all over the place, chairs and the desk were tossed to the side in pieces. The borrowed clothing either torn or tossed through out  
the room. On the back of the room, something was written with a red marker, in big chunky letters. ' _We're watching you, puta.'_

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Anne said as she let her hand fall from the doorknob and entered the room.

"Oh. Shit!" Half-Sack commented needlessly before he took out his phone and punched in a number.

Eyes scanning the room, Anne quickly made her way over to her thievery purse and its contents that were sprawled over the floor. She picked it up and started to frantically search it, eyes getting bigger and bigger the more she realized that it was missing.

"Fuck!" she yelled angrily as she threw her purse to the other side of the room and put her hands to the sides of her head, trying to grasp at reality.

The disc with footage of her robbery of the Mayans the other day was gone. They'd found it. They knew it was her. They knew she was the one that had broken in, and with that, they probably knew that she'd probably taken the footage of the Sons blowing  
up the Mayan storage as well. If that was true, then the Sons had a problem as well. A big one, and she'd caused it.

* * *

Chibs and Jax were the first one to arrive. They cursed as they looked at the wrecked room, faces wrapped up in angry scowls. As Jax bribed the owner, making sure no police was going to be involved, Chibs told Anne to pack up some of her stuff. At least  
the things that was still whole and useful.

From the ground she gathered some of the clothes that were still okay, though it wasn't much. She threw it into the dufflebag that, by a miracle, was still in one piece. Her hands rested on the sweater Chibs had borrowed her. There was a tear in it, but  
she tried to stuff it in the duffle with the rest.

From the outside of the room, she could hear more motorcycles approaching and for a moment panic surged to her head. What if it were Mayans? What if they'd come back to finish what they've started? The writing on the wall was clear: they'd be watching.  
What were a couple of Sons in a firefight but a bonus for them?

But by the sound of the voice of one of them, when the engines were killed, Anne's panic lowered a little. Clay barged in like the boss he was, cursing loudly at the mess.

Swiping everything on the counter of the bathroom into the dufflebag, Anne got out of the bathroom and looked at Clay.

"Fucking hell. What the fuck happened?" he growled as he watched the red letters on the back wall.

"Clay, they know it was me." Anne said as she hurried over to him. "At the warehouse, I stole the footage of my heist, along with yours. I couldn't leave traces. Not there…. They found it, Clay. They _know_ it was me! They know now I'm working with  
you guys. I'm sorry. This is my fault. I should've left that footage. I should've- I should've…" Anne said as the panic returned and she took a couple of steps back before she sunk to the floor against the wall.

The words failed her and all she could feel was her heart pumping in her throat, painfully. Her throat was dry and she felt the need to just...disappear. She should've never stayed in this place, now it was too late.

"Take her back to TM. I'll tell Gemma to clear one of the dorms right now."

Gentle yet calloused hands lifted her up against the wall, trying to make her stand. Anne felt like there was not strength left in her legs, but she forced them to work.

"Prospect! Ye take my bike and bring it to TM. Don't try to enjoy it too much, aye?" She heard Chibs trusty accented voice, before she was suddenly out in the open air.

The fresh air did her well, made her head clearer. She stepped into the car with Chibs and allowed him to drive her back to TM.

All the way she stayed silent, not sure what to actually say. She was so taken back by what had happened that she was still processing it. Not just the trashing of her room, or the taking of the disc, but the ' _We're watching you, puta_ ' was what  
had scared her the most. She'd just convinced herself that she was safe _inside_ Charming, with the Sons around. But she guessed that was a lie. 

"We're gonna get them for this one, Anne, I'll make sure of tha'." she heard Chibs say.

She wanted to tell him not to do it. Not to make the problem any bigger or to unchain a war that involved invading home town and territories, but she wanted him to. As selfish as it felt, she _wanted_ Chibs to catch the guys that had scared her like  
this. She was used to some excitement: intimidation, violence, car chases…. But this, this was on another level. This had become personal.

At TM, she was soon accommodated a room, much like Chibs' though far more emptier. Gemma had mustered some croweaters and sweetbutts to clean the place up, fairly quickly. Of course, everyone wanted to know what had happened but Anne dismissed them. She  
didn't want to talk about it. She wanted to lie down and stay that way. At least she had some reassurance that no Mayan would be stupid enough to storm this place, filled with Sons.

Anne gazed at the empty walls and the made double bed. Slowly sitting down on the plaited sheets, she started to unpack some of her stuff she was able to bring with her. Her make up, or rather what was left of it, some of the clothes Gemma had borrowed  
her, and Chibs' teared sweater. Curling up to her side, she pressed Chibs' sweater to her nose and inhaled deeply. His scent comforted her, made her calm. And it was at that moment that she let her emotions get the best of her.

Anne wasn't a cry-baby. She'd never had been. Believing that tears didn't solve anything, Anne always tried to put up a brave face and struggled on. However, it was too much right now. Getting shot at her previous heist by the Mayans, making a deal with  
Clay, all the people she'd met at her time with SAMCRO and TM, the job she'd done for Clay and her simmering feelings for Chibs… It was just too much to take in, too much to process. It felt like her brain was on an overload.

* * *

"Anne?"

Chibs knocked at the door of the room Anne got assigned so quickly. He was thankful of Gemma, her girls and the hard work they put into it.

He hadn't everseen Anne that distraught before. It absolutely broke his heart and enraged him in a way he hadn't felt in a long time. The way she had slumped down against the way in the motel, hands tangled in her blonde locks. She'd looked so devastated  
and lost but yet so beautiful too. He'd wanted to do nothing more than to press her against him, tight and safely, reassuring her it was going to be alright.

And that was what it was going to be: alright. He was going to make sure of it. The Mayans had stepped out of line this time, not just for the club, but for him personally. Threatening women wasn't something that was okay.

There was no response behind Anne's door. He pushed it open softly, and discovered her sleeping form on the bed. From this angle he could see the run down make up from her eyes. His heart sunk low, to the bottom of his shoes. She'd been crying, and he  
hadn't been there to comfort her.

Stepping inside, he left the door open as he approached her. The soft light of the bedside lamp threw a yellowish glow on her features, curled up….around his sweater.

Chibs frowned for a split second, before he positively ID'd his own sweater. To be frank he'd almost forgotten that he had borrowed it to her, but here she was, curled up around it. He didn't know how to react, how to feel about it, besides a strange  
sort of happiness. Maybe a sense of _pride_ was a better wording of it.

Outstretching his hand, he brushed lost strands of hair from her face before he killed the light of the bedside lamp and retreated out of the room. The urge to kiss her was enormous, but not now. Not like this. He closed the door of the Anne's dorm behind  
him and walked back to the bar, where some of the guys were still waiting, discussing retaliation in a low voice. He had some ideas for it. Gruesome ideas, but he wanted to voice them nonetheless…

* * *

A/N: I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 7

Hello all!

Welcome to yet again a chapter of this story. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sons of Anarchy or its characters.

* * *

Waking up in the dark, Anne groaned as she turned around to check her borrowed alarm clock. The bright red letters told her it wasn't even near her wake up time yet and she let her head fall back in her pillow. Faintly she could hear the music play in the center of the clubhouse, the occasional laughter and drunk yelling.

Living in a MC clubhouse turned out to be a bit more rowdy than Anne had imagined. There were a couple of parties in a week, parties that lasted all night and didn't die down until the late mornings. Parties that often resulted in loud drinking contests, bar brawls and the occasional fuck in the hallway. It surprised her how much noise these walls were able to block, but she needed some time to get used to the fact that there was life at the clubhouse 24/7.

Anne turned on her other side and closed her eyes, trying to force herself back to sleep. Her mind started to swirl behind her lidded eyes, pulling up images of the last couple of days and playing them out. It definitely didn't help her sleep. The last thing she wanted to see was her old motel room being thrashed and that ominous message on the wall ' _We're watching you, puta_ '.

Throwing the covers back of her bed, she stood on the soft carpet beneath and made her way over to the bathroom attached to her room. Flipping on the light, she stared at her reflection.

Dark circles lined her eyes, tired and annoyed. She put the strap of her new bought tank top back on her shoulder. That was the plus side to living here, she supposed, there was no rent to be paid. At least Gemma had assured her as much. It gave budget to buy a new wardrobe, since most of her borrowed clothes had been torn apart by the Mayans in their raid.

Tearing her gaze of herself, she opened the faucet and let warm water stream over her hands, washing her face. Maybe that would help to get her to sleep again. She rubbed the circles under her eyes before she killed the light in the bathroom and went back to her bed, crawling beneath the warm covers again.

She lasted for two minutes before she gave up. There was no sleep to be gained anymore, it seemed. Cursing under her breath, she dressed herself before she walked out of her room and closed the door behind her, making her way over the the center room of the clubhouse: the bar area.

"Look who's awake!" Bobby cried with a deep laughter, as he caught sight of her.

Anne gave him a small grimace as she took a seat next to him, trying to ignore the croweater that was sitting on his lap.

She supposed that was another upside of living here, there were always some members of SAMCRO around. She didn't have to be scared to be snatched up by Mayans all of a sudden.

Half-Sack was about to pour her a beer before she shook her head. She found she had no thirst for alcohol.

"Couldn't sleep?" Juice asked her as he took a sip from his drink.

"You got it." Anne said as she put her arms on the bar and watched Half-Sack clean some glasses.

"Girl, you got nothing to worry about. Mayans won't set a foot in here." Bobby said, "I'm surprised they came to Charming, personally. They know it's off limits."

"Yeah, well, not anymore it seems. They were happy enough to take the risk for me." She said, a little annoyed by Bobby's laid back attitude.

Bobby sighed as he put his beer down on the counter before he waved off his croweater. He looked at her with his deep sunken eyes.

"No one's going to hurt you in here, Anne. You can be assured of that." He told her, making sure to make eye contact with her.

Anne nodded in the end, deciding that she needed to believe Bobby on his words. As much as it haunted her, the tossing and turning at night had to end. She was safe here.

"And don't worry too much about getting even with them. We'll make sure of that as well, Chibs made that very clear. Clay agreed, the whole club did." Juice added, as he took another sip of his beer.

"I guess I should say thanks, huh?" She said, a little embarrassed at the subject. She didn't know what to say really. It felt oddly comforting to have the MC backing her up, but she wished it hadn't been necessary at all. It was safer for everybody that way.

"Point is: you don't come in _our_ town, and threaten women, goddammit." Bobby said as he took another sip, "You just don't."

"I haven't seen Chibs that angry in a long, long time." Juice added casually, "He even wanted to put the bullet in the one responsible himself-"

"Guys, I-...I really don't want to know." Anne said, putting her hands in her hair for a moment and sighing.

All this trouble they were going through, Chibs actually wanting to _kill_ a man for her? She knew that was what she wanted originally, but she was starting to doubt her decision. What if he got caught, or something worse happened? She'd never forgive herself.

He had checked up on her every time he came to the club or the garage, making sure she was okay. At first she'd waved away his concerns until she discovered that those were genuine worries, not some mandatory chore. He stayed a little longer with her whenever she asked him to. His presence calmed her and his voice made her worries go away, even if it was for a little while.

On nights where she couldn't sleep, and her dorm was strangely a bit intimidating, she found that Chibs' sweater still worked its charm. Just like the owner, it helped calm her worries... She gave it back though, yesterday. Chibs had insisted that she kept it for a little while longer, but she felt like there was no real excuse anymore now that she'd bought her own clothes.

She kind of regretted it now.

"Lemme make you something my mom made for me when I was still little. Those worries of yours will etch themselves on your pretty face." Bobby said as he hoisted himself from the bar stool.

"I'm not some lil' kid, Bobby." Anne retorted as she looked at his retreating form to the kitchen in the back,

"I know," he said as she heard him rummage through the cupboards, "But even you will love this, I'm sure. It helps calm the nerves."

It didn't take him a long time before he returned to her with a steaming mug. Passing by the bar, he took an open bottle of whiskey and poured in a decent amount before he put it in front of her.

"Hot cocoa with liquor? Really?" Anne said as she raised her eyebrow at Bobby, not denying the amused grin on her face.

"Nothing makes people dream better than this stuff, I swear it." Bobby said as he took his seat again on the bar stool, "Try it."

Stirring around the liquid with her spoon, she let smiled at the scent coming from it. It did smell good: terribly sweet with a slight pinch of alcoholic touch. Her lips twisted themselves in a small grin as she lifted the cup and took a small, tongue scorching sip.

"It's good!" Anne said as she quickly put the cup down and cooled her tongue by the air.

Bobby started laughing, shaking his head and patting her on the back. He took the last sip of his drink before he ordered Half-Sack to get him a new one.

In the end Anne didn't stay up long. She finished her drink, after it had cooled a little, and had returned to bed. Despite Bobby's promise and the liquor, sleep didn't come. She just lied there, eyes staring at the ceiling, as she took in the familiar sounds around her.

* * *

"Good morning love-" Chibs called out from the workplace as she made her way to the office of Teller Morrow Automotive, "- Jesus Christ, ye look terrible."

Anne quickly took a look in one of the windows around, before she concluded Chibs' statement had been correct. The dark circles under her eyes had returned and even though she was quite skilled with make-up, no foundation could cover them and the paleness on her cheeks. It was a wonder she wasn't showing red spots on her neck, like her grandpa when he needed his afternoon nap.

"Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix." she said, trying to act cheerful, while in reality she just wanted to curl up and pass out somewhere.

"Aye, and what's the last time ye had one of those?" he said as he approached her. "Why don't ye talk with Gemma and take the day off. Seems like ye could use some wee hours of sleep."

"No, I don't- Look. I'll be fine, okay? It just takes some time." Anne said, as she pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. She'd sound a bit more angry than she'd meant to.

If Chibs was bothered by her tone, he surely didn't show it. He gave her a small squeeze on her shoulder before he turned around and walked back to the car he'd been assigned to.

Back in the office, Gemma seemed to watch her every move behind her desk. Anne tried like she didn't notice but she had to admit that her work wasn't getting easier with Gemma's stare constantly on her back. Secretly, Anne hoped that Gemma had to go to the hospital later again, just to give her some space to breathe. It felt like she was walking on eggshells, constantly. Anne didn't feel the need to talk to Gemma about how she was doing, the raid and definitely not about Chibs' constant support.

Anne could tell from the way Gemma inhaled that the matriarch was going to say something, and so she braced herself.

"You know, you didn't show up at family dinner last Friday." Gemma said, trying to sound like she didn't care Anne missed out.

"Yeah, sorry. I was feeling a little under the weather. Didn't want to be a bother." Anne lied as she put away a box with old forms. She stretched her back and took the next box, stacking them in the corner of the office.

Truth be told, with everything that had been going on, Anne just felt like it was too much. There had been too much on her mind to properly enjoy such dinner, even though it was awkward enough that it was labeled as a 'family dinner'.

"Well, you better be there the next time." Gemma said as she looked at Anne, who started to doubt if her lie had been so wise, "It'd be good for you. Hanging out in the clubhouse all the time isn't all that either, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Anne agreed, getting a little tired of the constant parties, "But it's not like I have any other place to go. I'll be at the next dinner. I promise."

Gemma looked at her as she toyed with a cigarette. Sighing, she lit it and started to sort some of the forms on her desk. For a moment, Anne swore it looked like Gemma was going to say something, but she decided it was best not to go digging at it. Gemma handed a couple of forms to Anne, who stamped them and put them away in their respective files.

In the end Gemma had to go to the hospital for Abel and despite for feeling bad for the kid, Anne was happy to be out of the matriarch's sight for a moment. Sitting behind Gemma's desk, Anne rolled the lighted cigarette between her thumb and index finger. She was staring at the computer screen in front of her, trying to make sense of all the numbers. They were dancing before her eyes and Anne tore her eyes from them when her brain started screaming internally.

Closing the screen in frustration, she killed the cigarette and rubbed her eyes. She made sure to let Gemma deal with the numbers tomorrow. Right now she just wanted some food and get to bed. Eyeing the clock on the other wall, she smiled. Closing time.

She was making her way over to the workplace, to tell the boys that it was time to close up shop, when she halted in her tracks.

"Where the fuck did that ambulance come from?" she said as she gawked at the white and red vehicle for a moment.

Half-Sack grin was a little lopsided as he climbed out of the driver's seat. Anne could feel her eyebrows knit together in a frown before she walked to the gray shutters of the garage and closed them.

"Half-Sack, what the _fuck_?!" she hissed at the young boy as she approached him, "You stole an ambulance?!"

"Yeah eh...club-business?" he tried as he scratched himself behind his ear.

"Of course it is." Anne said irritated before Clay, Tig and Chibs made their entry in the garage.

"Anne, get out." Clay ordered her as he jerked his head to the other side of the gray shutters.

Normally she wouldn't have let anyone command her like that, but she knew that she needed Clay to get that retaliation on the Mayans, so she just rolled her eyes and stomped outside. If anything, she needed to pick her battles.

* * *

She was sitting at her desk, looking over the local paper, cigarette in one hand. It was her third time flipping through the papers. Not a word about the raid had gone to the journalists. At least that was good, Anne decided. The less attention for this whole Mayans-SAMCRO beef, the better it was.

She stretched her arms and tried to rub the knots out of her muscles when there was a sudden knock on her door, before it was swung open.

"Oh no, _please_ come in, common courtesy is dead anyway." Anne said sarcastically as she turned to look at the person barging in.

She shut her mouth immediately when she caught sight of Chibs. His SAMCRO vest was hanging loosely on his shoulders as he looked at her through his sunglasses.

"We need a driver." Chibs said, his voice serious.

"So… take Half-Sack?" Anne said, not understanding what this was about.

"No, ye don' understand, we need a _fast_ driver. And an extra pair of hands. Please, Anne." he added.

Anne raised an eyebrow as she got out of her chair and stepped into a pair of shoes. She grabbed her hair tie from the bed stand and quickly wrapped the blonde strands into a ponytail. She didn't know why all of a sudden she was being included into their secretive 'club business' but she figured she couldn't really say no.

She followed Chibs outside, over the parking lot, to Teller Morrow, where he opened the garage. The ambulance from that afternoon was still there, only now with Juice in the back, greeting her with a big grin, and Half-Sack at the passenger's seat.

"Half will give ye directions." Chibs said before he climbed in with Juice and closed to back doors.

Sighing, Anne walked around the vehicle and slid into the driver's seat. She'd never operated an ambulance before but she guessed it wasn't that much harder than a van. Only one way to find out…

She rolled the vehicle out of the garage before she searched with one hand for the window between the driver's cabin and the area in the back. With a slam she opened it, scaring Half-Sack senseless.

"So, is anyone going to explain me what I'm being dragged into?" she asked irritable before she turned to the road with screeching tires.

"Apparently one of our associates got shot in the ass when he was meetin' Clay for a business deal." came Chibs' voice from the back of the van, along with Juice's snickering, "The bullets were meant for Clay but he got out unscathed."

"In his _ass_?" Anne said, trying to hold in her laughter. Her smirk was quivering though and the longer she thought about it, the funnier it got.

"Aye." Chibs said as Juice broke out in laughter.

"Who shot him?" Anne asked as she took a left turn at Half-Sack's advice.

It grew a little silent in the back all of a sudden, before Juice answered.

"Mayans."

"Jesus, shit." Anne growled, her laughter and upbeat mood soon gone. She had to repress the urge to step in the brakes and turn back. She would've if this hadn't been important to the club, her own associate.

* * *

She reversed the vehicle at the Irish pub Half-Sack had directed them to. Immediately the back doors of the van were swung open and Chibs and Juice sprang to action, taking the bed with them.

Anne let the engine purr softly as she got out of the driver's seat and walked her way inside the bar. A musky scent greeted her, as did the bald owner. He gave her a look before he nodded.

"Hot damn." she commented as she looked at the mess around them.

There was glass everywhere, chairs and tables thrown to the side. At her feet was a body covered in dark clothes, but just by looking at his face, Anne could tell he was a Mayan. The tattoo's on his arms proved that theory true.

She watched as the members of SAMCRO hoisted the associate onto the ambulance bed, with a snicker or two. Anne waited for them to pass her by before she looked at Clay and Tig.

"Anne, what are you doing here?" Clay asked in a growling semi-bored voice.

"The boys needed a driver." she said as she gestured to the ambulance outside, "Guess it came in handy after all, huh?… You think those bullets were meant for you?"

Anne looked at Clay, her gaze calculating and uneasy. She'd found it all a little too coincidental. It gave her the idea that the Mayans were out for blood. And it didn't matter anymore if it was SAMCRO. Had they put 1 and 1 together, making the conclusion that Anne worked for the Sons of Anarchy, even though she didn't at the start? Clay didn't seem to be in a hurry to answer her.

"Clay. It'll only get worse from here on out. The Mayans obviously don't care if their raids are public or not. We need to be careful." Anne said, "If that bullet was meant for you, then-"

"It was." Clay admitted, as he turned one of the bodies with his foot, "Fucking Mayans."

He sighed and looked her over, calculating as well, "No word about this, you got that? Only inside the club. If I catch you running your mouth outside, you'd be wishing Mayans got to you first."

"Yessir. Loud and clear." Anne said as she gave him a mocking salute before she turned away and made her way over to the ambulance, where Chibs had started to 'treat' the patient, though it looked a little gruesome to Anne. With a slight disapproving yet amused look, she watched the Scot take a gulp of whiskey before he yelled instructions at Juice.

"I hope he can handle a bumpy ride. Where to? Hospital?" Anne asked as she climbed in the driver's seat. A gurgling scream told her the patient in the back wasn't happy with her suggestion of a hospital.

"...Well, clubhouse then?" she inquired, before she caught an affirmative 'aye' from Chibs throughout the screaming.

Anne closed the door and closed her hands around the steering wheel before she stepped on the gas, rolling the vehicle back on the road while the Irishman in the back screamed and groaned.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

Hello all! I present to you a new chapter of the story. Thank you to all who have favorited, followed and reviewed the story up till now, I appreciate it deeply!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sons of Anarchy, or its characters.

* * *

Anne was still surprised by the versatility of the people in SAMCRO. Even though Chibs' had been a medic in the military, for not a long time, he occupied himself days in a backroom with Cameron and Juice, trying to treat Cameron's wounds. When he wasn't completely subdued by booze, he was screaming out loudly. It was a wonder the cops hadn't rolled up yet.

Just like Anne hadn't wanted to go to the hospital, when Jax and Chibs had found her, Cameron made it very clear that it wasn't an option. Luckily they had complied to that but it meant that Cameron was going under a much rougher treatment.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to hit Chibs on his head or compliment him for trying to treat Cameron like that, with whiskey to keep Cameron from the pain and Chibs from the nerves. At some point, the bleeding had to stop right?

"How much longer until he's all patched up?" she asked Chibs as she looked at Cameron's gruesome behind.

"I dunno. He took some bullets up the arse, so it's not easy, lass." Chibs said with a small grunt of annoyance as he pressed down a blood drenched cloth on Cameron's wounds.

"Let me get you at least some new towels and stuff." Anne offered, what got her a thankful nod from Chibs, who fed Cameron some more booze.

It was a military thing, probably, treating someone with booze. Though she wasn't certain this was the right way. She wondered if Cameron was going to make it, in general. They had no equipment, no meds, nothing. And she wasn't sure if Chibs actually knew what he was doing, or was acting like he did.

Safe to say, her relief was big when Jax brought a dark haired woman with her, who turned out to be a doctor. A _real_ doctor. She had been a bit suspicious at first, 'cause who knew if she was going to run her mouth, but she trusted Jax's judgment.

Anne had just returned with some new towels when the woman, Tara, had send out Chibs and Juice and took over.

"I could use an extra pair of hands." she said to Anne, as she put the towels down, before Tara offered her a pair of gloves.

"Sure. Just… tell me what to do. I have no medical knowledge whatsoever." Anne said, with a low chuckle as she worked her hands into the tight gloves.

"Alright. Hold this. Press it down with this gauze. Tightly. No, tighter. That's it." Tara said to her as Anne tried to follow her instructions.

Tara bend herself over the wound and for a moment it became hard to see what she was doing, before she held up some bullet residue, covered in blood and human tissue.

"Well done, doc." Gemma said, standing in the doorway.

It seemed that the temperature dropped some degrees. Anne could tell that these two women had history, and not necessarily good one. She kept her eyes on the gauze that she used to cover Cameron's other wound, trying not to think about the place too much. Gemma entered the room, closing the door behind her, before she walked towards them.

"Is he going to make it?" she asked Tara.

"With some rest, medication, I think he will." she said, closing the wound and wrapping it up.

"Good." Gemma said, obviously pleased. A small smile had worked its way up to her lips.

"You can release it now, eh…."

"Anne." Anne said as she pulled away her hands, just in time for Tara to take over.

"Nice to meet you Anne. How's the shoulder?"

Anne looked at Tara incredulously for a moment before her mind connected the dots.

"You treated me, at the hospital." she stated.

"I did. Jax…asked me to help you. It was just something small. I was more worried about the blood loss to be honest. But you made a quick recovery."

Tara removed the gloves from her fingers and sighed contently as she looked at her work.

"Alright. Give him a couple of hours and then he'd be okay to transport." she told Gemma.

Gemma nodded in return and cleared herself away from the room.

"Transport?"

"Well, he needs rest. I doubt he's going to get that in here." Tara said as she gave the man on the table another look over.

"Ah, right." Anne said as she wondered where SAMCRO was going to take him, if he couldn't stay here.

* * *

"A cabin?" Anne asked, a little confused as she looked at Clay.

"Yeah. I want you to take him there. I can't miss a single guy here tonight. Take the prospect with you." he said gruffly as he lit a cigar, "At least he won't be in our way and you'll still be under protection. Like our deal said."

Clay had surprised Anne with the job offer, all of a sudden. He'd called her to the bar of the club and basically told her to take Cameron to some random cabin in the North. Piney's cabin, from what she understood. There Cameron could gather his strength and get back on his feet.

"What's tonight?" Anne tried to ask, not hoping on him to tell him about anything club-related really. She figured it was worth a shot though.

Clay gave her a dark look as he breathed the smoke of his cigar in her direction, making Anne scrounge up her nose. She had no issue with cigarette smoke, cigars however...she found those had some extra heavy scent to them. A scent she didn't like in particular.

Clay bared his teeth again, making him look more like a gorilla, before he straightened his back.

"Some loose ends to tie up." he said before he tossed her the keys of the van, "Gemma will be up there with you in a day or two. The doc will give him enough pain meds to last him through that. Gemma will take new ones with her."

"Alright, boss." she said, a little bitter as she tucked the keys in the pocket of her jeans.

Not that she'd expected Clay to tell her what was going on tonight, but she had a certain feeling. She bit on the inside of her cheek, before she slipped from the bar stool she'd been sitting on, and made her way to the back of the building.

At the door of Chibs' room, she halted. She gave a few soft knocks before his heavily accented voice told her to come in.

"Hey, medic." she told him with a grin as she leaned against the doorpost.

With a tired expression, Chibs looked at her. The blood had gone from his hands and arms, but a tired expression looked back at her. It made her wonder just how much sleep he'd missed with taking care of Cameron like that.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm perfect, lass." Chibs said, though she found it hard to determine his level of sarcasm.

"You did good out there. Tara says he's gonna live." Anne said, trying to lift his spirit.

"That's good." Chibs said as he pulled a cigarette from his pack and lit it.

Anne closed the door behind her and looked at him, while puffs of smoke circled around in the room.

"…Clay's sending me to Piney's cabin, with Cameron and Half-Sack. Said he couldn't miss a guy tonight. Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"Club business-"

"Oh, fuck off." Anne said, "I know that. I don't _care_ if it is. What's going on Chibs?"

Chibs looked in her eyes and she was trying to put all her pleading power into her green orbs, before he sighed and gestured for the chair next to the desk to sit herself on. Quietly she did so, looking at him expectantly.

"Well?"

"Retaliation. For you and McKeavey." Chibs said as he turned to look at her.

Anne swallowed hard. Even though she had imagined this moment a lot of times, it was finally here. And it made her nervous. Clay sending her away was for their own convenience.

"But the Mayans didn't have anything to do with McKeavey right?" Anne said, obviously confused.

"Aye, true. Jax, Opie and Bobby are takin' care of that one."

"I'd kind of thought you wanted to avenge McKeavey?" she said as she looked at him, confused.

"Lass, I wouldn't want to miss out on the chance of paying some back to the Mayans after what they did to ye. Not for the life of me." Chibs told her, before he killed his smoke in a nearby full ashtray.

Anne didn't know how to feel about it, what Chibs told her, but a sense of thankfulness she hadn't experienced before. Who knew people would go as far, for her?

"Chibs?"

"Aye?"

"Thanks."

"Aye, it's all good, lass."

* * *

"Here." Gemma said as she handed her a small package, wrapped in a colorful scarf. For some reason Anne had missed her coming into her room.

Her hands were stuffing a pair of jeans in her backpack, before Anne got a look at what Gemma was holding in her hands.

"Is it going to be that cold up there?" Anne said, as she tried to pass it off as joke.

Gemma gave her a look before she shut Anne's door with the back of her foot. She unwrapped the package from its scarf en Anne could feel her stomach drop.

In Gemma's hands laid a gun. A small one, but a gun nonetheless.

Anne looked at Gemma, a frown etched on her face. She wasn't in a hurry to take it. It seemed that Gemma noticed her cautiousness, her lips turning into a thin line.

"It's to protect yourself." Gemma explained when Anne didn't move.

"Half-Sack will be up there with me. There's no need." Anne said dismissively.

Gemma sighed impatiently before she stepped forward and pressed the metal object into Anne's hands. It felt cold and heavy, Anne thought.

"No serial numbers, no registrations. Do you know how to shoot? Tig told me-"

"I told Tig I didn't _carry_. I know how to shoot, Gemma." Anne said, a little bitter.

Nonetheless she put Gemma's 'gift' into her backpack, making sure the safety pal was on before she did so. There were no need for it to go off all of a sudden.

"Jesus, Gemma..." she sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Just where did you get this?"

"Oh, I had a couple of spares at home." the Matriarch said casually, like it wasn't a big deal.

Anne didn't know what to make of it all. She didn't know anything about this Cameron. It helped that Half-Sack was going with her, but she didn't know if the boy was useful of push came to shove. Suddenly it dawned on her just how little she knew about the people she was associating herself with.

"Thanks Gemma." she said as she hoisted the backpack on her shoulder. There was a little coldness in her voice, but she could tell Gemma could still see the appreciation – though it was little – in it.

She pushed the door open en let them both out, before locking it behind them.

"You call me if you things get tough, alright?" she told Anne sternly.

"Of course." Anne lied, knowing that if things got out of hand, calling Gemma wasn't the first thing on her mind. But this time she wouldn't fuck it up. Besides, it was just some 'babysitting, it was going to be a piece of cake.

Outside the sun shone like it was just another summer's day. Anne hated the idea of having to travel all day in the sun, in a dark van. It was going to be hot, sweaty and she was going to be grumpy because of it.

Lighting a cigarette, she climbed into the driver's seat of the van, waiting for the members of SAMCRO to put Cameron on a stretcher in the back. From the sound of Cameron's groaning and the low chuckles of the bikers, it was quite a task. But in the end she heard the doors in the back close with a small bang.

"Alrigh', he's in. Be a little kind to him, lass. Alrigh'?" Chibs said as he folded his arms around the rolled down window.

Anne gave a small chuckle.

"I'll try." she said, before putting on her sunglasses.

"Aye, that'll have to do." Chibs answered with an equal grin.

He was about to pull away when Anne shot out and grabbed his arm. Her reflection looked back at her as she tried to peer at Chibs' eyes through his intense dark sunglasses. A worried frown was hiding behind her own pair of shades.

"Please be careful. Whatever you're going to do. You know I don't want you to get hurt because of me. It's not worth it, Chibs."

"Ah, ye startin' to care for me now, lass? I'm flattered-"

"Chibs, I mean it..." Anne cut him off, with a small sigh.

Chibs looked at her as his lips thinned themselves. He slowly plucked her hand from his arm before he removed his sunglasses, to look at her.

"Anne, stop it. It has to happen. Just like a retaliation for McKeavey."

"That's different. He was your friend, for a long time." Anne said as she shook her head, "I don't like this, Chibs. I got a bad feeling."

"Aye, McKeavey was a good friend of the club. Call it all ye want but you're becoming just as much a friend for the club yourself, even if ye don't know it yet." Chibs said, "Ye keep hiding behind that 'business associate'-shite of yours, but ye hang out with us almost every night, if ye can."

Anne realized he had a point with that. Often she stayed up late, having a drink or two with them, laughing and playing games… Maybe she was closer with them than she kept telling herself.

"Don't worry about me, lass. Get Cameron to the cabin and we'll talk soon. I promise."

"You better." Anne said, knowing her plea fell on deaf ears.

Chibs pulled away from the window and gave the side of the van a pat or two, signaling it was time to leave. Half-Sack climbed in at the passenger's seat at the last minute, what earned him a stern look from Anne.

"You're late." she commented as she let the van roll forward, onto the street.

"Yeah, I had to say goodbye to Cherry." he said, a small reddish glow on his cheeks as he buckled up.

"The Nevada girl with the broken nose?" Anne asked surprised as they left Teller-Morrow behind them.

"That's the one." Half-Sack said, almost proudly.

Anne cracked a grin. She'd seen Half-Sack and the girl together a couple of times at the bar, or outside. They looked good together, she had to admit.

"She gonna be your old lady?" Anne said teasingly as she turned the van onto the highway.

"She might. If I get patched in, that is." Half-Sack said with a smirk.

"What about yourself?"

Anne gave him a confused look, though she quickly averted it back to the road in front of them.

"What do you mean?"

"Just how you and Chibs keep hanging around each other." he commented casually as he lit a cigarette.

"Fuck off." Anne spat, trying to push down the redness on her cheeks. Half-Sack had taken her by surprise on that one. OR rather, maybe she'd set herself up for a trap, and walked into it wide-eyed.

"Can't fool me. I see how you both stare at each other, you know." Half-Sack said as he rolled down the window on his side.

"We don't _stare_ , Half." Anne said shortly, "That's high-school stuff."

"Sure, sure. Then what was that mushy moment at the door of the van, just now?"

"Half, if you don't want to get kicked out of the van, shut it."

"Yes ma'am."

Half-Sack was right though. Something was changing in her dynamic with Chibs. She knew it and she could feel it. It was more than just 'becoming closer'. To her it felt like there was some sort of tension in the air, waiting to be broken.

She worried about him. Tonight, while they would arrive at the cabin, he and his fellow crew-members would go out against the Mayans. God knows how that would end… And what had Chibs meant with his cryptic remark about 'talking when he got back'? What was there to talk about? Anne didn't have a response to that. The only thing she could focus on, was trying to keep her feelings under control; the redness on her cheeks, the fast beating of her heart while the road slipped away under them.

* * *

The cabin was all that she'd imagine of it. It was like in the movies: brown tree-trunk like chalet in the middle of nowhere. She was only missing a crazy dude with a chainsaw, who'd jumped out of nowhere to scare them shitless.

"Alright, this is it." she said as she put the van in park and opened the door.

Together with Half-Sack, they carried the stretcher out into the cabin, where she let Cameron catch a breather before they'd try to help him up. According to Tara, they could try and let him walk a little, but only if he needed to.

Half-Sack took it upon himself to help Cameron get cleaned up and so they carried the stretcher to the bedroom, where Half-Sack soon shut her out.

Trying to make herself useful, Anne started to unpack the van. Gemma had made sure to include groceries, and Anne was grateful for it. She didn't really want to leave this place with Cameron in a shape like that.

Putting some random ingredients together, she decided to get some dinner going. Half-Sack and Cameron would be hungry right now. Her own appetite was out of the window since she'd left Teller-Morrow. A knot had placed itself in her stomach. She felt nervous for Chibs and the others… At least making some food could take her mind off things.

Anne didn't cook a lot. Usually when she was traveling from state to state, she lived on diners, take out and other fast food joints. There was no real time or safety to have a place of her own, and so she rarely cooked. But it seemed that her hands knew exactly what to do. She'd made this recipe so many times before, by now she could cook it effortlessly.

Half-Sack and Cameron appreciated her cooking, at least for the warm meal in their stomachs. She'd served it in the bedroom, after Half-Sack made sure Cameron was cleaned up again. She figured it would be less strenuous for him to in that room, but he didn't take light to her pity. Cameron pushed himself too hard when it came to his healing. Not long after he'd finished his dinner, did he wobble to the living room. He settled himself upon a wooden chair around the round dining table.

Anne and Half-Sack followed suit, did the dishes quietly and put them away. Half-Sack wanted to step outside for a moment, to call Cherry. Anne had to shake her head and grin at his devotion to her. It was sweet.

"Do you pray?" Cameron asked her, looking up from his necklace.

"No," Anne said, a little more dismissive than she meant to. She put down her cup of coffee onto the table while she looked at him.

"I found God never answered them in the past. I always seem to get his answering machine. I gave up in the end."

Cameron seemed to snort a little at that. He bend himself over his beady necklace again, resuming his muttering as he did so.

It made Anne wonder. Just what were these men looking for in their prayers? Forgiveness? Clear conscious? She was sure there were a lot pf sins that they'd ask God to clear them of.

Anne was never brought up religiously. There had never been a stable foster home for her that provided her or learned her the basics of it. Only in her dire and desperate moments was she inclined to believe that only a higher power could save her from all her shit… but after all this time it still hadn't. And so, Anne believed that there was no one to help her but herself.

She poured herself some more coffee and watched as Cameron finished his prayer, putting the necklace back around his neck.

"You do that often?" she asked him curiously.

"As often as I need." he answered.

"I can imagine quite a lot of times. Especially now with those wounds up your ass." she chuckled lowly.

Cameron just gave her an unamused look as he poured some coffee into his own cup.

"So tell me," Cameron said with his intriguing accent. Though it wasn't the one Anne longed to hear the most. Cameron took a sip of the dark liquid in his cup, "Just what is your connection to SAMCRO? You don't seem a member or one of those girls they like to order around so much. You know, those young ones."

Anne gave him a bemused smile. Often it felt like she was ordered around. Especially by Clay. She supposed there was a no helping it. After all, Clay was SAMCRO's president and her employer. IT was funny that Cameron thought otherwise.

"Think of me as another business associate of SAMCRO." she said, still with that smile on her face.

After her talk with Chibs before she left for the cabin, she wasn't sure anymore what her connection was. Business associate? Friend of the club? It was true she liked to hang around the bar a lot, but the label it 'friend of the club'… she supposed it wasn't up to her to do that.

She decided there was no use of letting Cameron in on her musings, or in her deal with Clay for that matter. He had nothing to do with it, just like she had nothing to do with him...besides making sure he wasn't dying out here.

Taking a cigarette out of her pack, she offered it to Cameron, who declined.

Anne shrugged and put the pack away, before lighting the small stick of tobacco wedged between her lips.

"You do seem the odd one out though. Not one of the guys, yet not completely out of they circle." Cameron observed.

"What makes you think that?" Anne asked him as she leaned back in her chair and looked at him.

"Just what I saw in my time at that clubhouse. They seem to appreciate you helping out, and you seem eager to."

Anne bit on the inside of her cheek, cursing herself. Despite being on alcohol and in a lot of pain, Cameron seemed to have been able to observe quite a lot at the clubhouse. Anne wondered just how much he had seen and heard, not just from her but from everybody. It seemed he was quite observant. Even without the alcohol.

"Like I said, business associate." Anne retorted, getting real annoyed with his digging around now, "Why? What's with all the questions?"

Cameron just grinned as he drank the rest of his coffee. HE put the cup down before he stood from his seat.

"Just trying to get to know Clay's circle, you know."

Anne narrowed her eyes as she watching him make a wobble retreat to the bedroom in the back of the cabin. She took another drag from her cigarette before she killed it in the ashtray on the table. For some reason Cameron gave her the creeps.

She waited until she heard the door click shut behind Cameron before she stood from the seat and made her way over to the kitchen, where she'd left her backpack. Biting her lips, she undid the straps of it and started to dig around, until her fingers wrapped themselves around the cold metallic form of Gemma's gun.

Taking it out, Anne checked the mag before she shoved the part back into the gun and listened to the smooth sound of it clicking together. She put the gun behind the waistband of her jeans, on the side, before she walked back to the living room.

She'd decided to make up camp on the couch. Cameron was occupying the bedroom and Half-Sack told her he didn't sleep much at jobs like this. Unlike Juice, he'd never fallen asleep babysitting her either.

So Anne took the gun out of her jeans and put it beneath a pillow as she turned on her back and started up at the ceiling, a thin blanket covering her. All sorts of thought spiraled trough her head. What were the boys of SAMCRO up to right now? And Chibs? Was he safe?

As much as Anne wanted to catch some sleep, it just wasn't given to her. She was constantly distracted by her own thoughts, the sounds of Half-Sack's stupid game console or Cameron's snoring. And even in the rare quiet moments, she felt too anxious to drift off. She was scared to hear the sound of tires outside. Police, Mayans, or worse…

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think, it's always appreciated.


	9. Chapter 9

Hello all! It's been a while since I uploaded a new piece. Work has been a bit busy, but now I'm back on track again. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or its characters.

* * *

Life at the cabin was pretty boring in the end, Anne found. It seemed that it was located remotely enough to keep them from unwanted visitors. Nights were quiet, aside from Cameron's snoring but Anne still kept Gemma's gun close.

She, Half-Sack and Cameron spend the days playing the same card games with the same shitty rules as she did at the clubhouse. The rules still hadn't made sense to her and she suspected the boys of cheating.

"You see, the ace is higher than the numbered cards." Half-Sack said as he gathered up the small pile of cash in the middle of the table.

"I thought queens were." Anne said sourly as she lit a cigarette.

"Queens aren't worth shit. It's better to throw in some jacks if you got those." Cameron said as he shuffled the cards.

"Wanna play again? We could split the winnings." Half-Sack said as he laid out the cards.

"Fuck off. I'm out of money anyway." Anne said as she pushed her chair away from the table.

Safe to say, Anne was a sore loser. Especially when she didn't understand the game and how it was played. It made her cranky, and broke too.

Taking her smoke outside, she closed the door behind her and fished her burner out of her pocket. She let it turn in her hands a couple of times before she flipped it open.

She punched in Chibs' number and put the phone to her ear. Eagerly she let it ring a couple of times before she closed it, killing the robotic female voice of the general voicemail. Impatiently she scrolled through the inbox of her texts, though there was nothing new to see.

Anne had been trying to get a hold of Chibs since the first night at the cabin, only without luck. Not knowing how the retaliation went was killing her. She needed to know he was okay and the robotic voicemail was not helping. If only, it soured her mood even more.

If something had happened, she'd know it right? They'd at least let Half-Sack know, or that was what she assumed… She'd call Bobby or Gemma about it but decided against it. She didn't want to be a bother or give them the idea that something was wrong at the cabin.

She was shaken from her musings when she heart the beeping sound of the burner. Eagerly she reopened the device, her excitement dropping when she saw a text from Gemma, stating that she was on her way and would be at the cabin at the late afternoon.

Anne quickly send her an 'OK, see you soon' before she closed the phone and tossed away the butt of her cigarette. She hoped Gemma would bring at least a new pack of smokes, because God forbid a store up here, in this random place.

Stepping back inside the cabin, she made a straight line for the kitchen and grabbed a couple of glasses and an open bottle of vodka.

She poured each of them an amount at the table before she flopped down in her seat. Watching as Half-Sack lost an epic amount of money to Cameron, Anne shook her head and took a swig of her drink. Stupid game.

"Gemma texted. She'll be here later on." she told them.

"Good." Cameron said as he downed his drink, "I can tell it's time for those new meds. Pain's slowly returning."

He retreated from the table with his cash and wobbled back to the bedroom.

"How does his wound look?" Anne asked Half-Sack as she poured herself another glass.

"Better, I guess. I mean, I'm not a doctor but it's less bloody and nasty." he said, toying with his glass. He hadn't taken a sip yet.

"Good. The sooner we can leave this goddamn place, the happier I am." Anne muttered.

"Yeah, I can tell. You've been in a foul mood since we got here." Half-Sack said, semi-casually. "Wanna tell me what's on your mind? I'm a good listener."

Anne scoffed, though she knew Half-Sack meant well. He was a sweet kid, with a good heart. She supposed that was part of his charm. No wonder a girl like Cherry had fallen for him.

"I'm just worried about the rest of the guys." she said shortly, "All be good whenever we're back."

"...You mean you're worried about Chibs." Half-Sack stated quietly.

"What?! I never said that!" Anne blurted out as her face felt like someone had suddenly turned up the heat.

"You don't need to. I have eyes you know? You keep staring at your phone, you barely sleep. You just have this...restlessness about you."

Anne sighed. Keeping up the charade was futile. Half-Sack saw right through her.

"Don't tell anyone. Okay? Please." she said as she put down her empty glass, "Especially not Chibs. I know he's your dear sponsor and all but...don't."

Half-Sack looked satisfied enough with the fact that he was right. His grin was bigger than Anne was comfortable with, but in the end he nodded.

"I won't tell anyone." he said finally, before he pushed away his, still filled, glass.

"Don't like vodka?"

"Never had the taste for it."

* * *

Gemma arrived late afternoon, like she told Anne by text. Armed with bags of groceries, she stepped inside the cabin.

"Good, you two are still alive." she stated with a small smile as she put the bags of groceries in the kitchen.

"Where's the Irish?"

"In the bedroom." Anne said as she leaned against the door frame of the kitchen.

Gemma hummed while she lit a cigarette from her pack and leaned against the cabinets. Anne caught her gaze on her and she gave Gemma a questioning look. Gemma either didn't see it or chose to ignore it. Which one it was, Anne didn't know.

Anne pushed herself away from the door frame and walked up to Gemma, who held out her pack of cigarettes to her. Gratefully, Anne took one and lit it. She leaned next to the matriarch as the smoke slowly rose from her lips.

For a moment it was silent, until she felt a gentle tug at the bottom of her shirt. Startled, she looked at tit, where saw Gemma's hand. She'd lifted the bottom of her shirt just enough to reveal the gun tucked behind the waistband of Anne's pants.

"Thought you didn't like my gift." Gemma said, a little grin on her lips.

Anne scoffed a little, not wanting to tell Gemma it made her feel safe. Last she wanted was actually be thankful for something like a gun. Yet, weirdly enough, she _was_ thankful. It made her time with Cameron in the cabin bearable. If he got dangerous or too much to handle, she could shoot him...or herself when she couldn't take the boredom any longer.

"Please tell me you brought at least some booze with you." Anne said with a pleading look.

Gemma grinned against as he hands found her way to one of the brown paper bags and gave it to Anne. Eagerly she browsed through it. Vodka, whiskey, pack of smokes… Anne sighed relieved.

Gemma held another bag out to her. A plastic one that didn't really had a logo on it. Or anything else distinguishing.

Anne gave Gemma a new questioning look, but the other woman could only grin. Gemma killed her cigarette in the sink, before she started to put the groceries away.

Staring at the plastic bag for a moment, Anne reached her hand inside and pulled out...a couple of dice in a small plastic box, wrapped with a blue ribbon.

Taken with surprise, she turned the box to discover a sticky note from Teller-Morrow Automotive on it.

 _Because fuck Irish card games, right? - Chibs_

Anne felt a small chuckle emit from her lips before a feeling of realization and relief washed over her. He was still alive, and doing well too it seemed.

From the other side of the kitchen, Gemma send her a curious look, before she turned her gaze to the dice in her hands.

"That's what he wanted me to deliver? Jesus." she said, a little grumpily before she packed up some white small boxes and made her way over to Cameron, resting at the dining table. He was hunched over his beady necklace once again.

She could tell Gemma was about to talk to him, before the Matriarch got a phone call. Anne watched from her position at the door frame as she talked into the phone, though inaudible for her. With a slight curse, Gemma closed her phone.

"Do you believe in God, Gemma?" Cameron asked Gemma, noting her entrance.

To be honest, it would've amazed Anne if Gemma, the Matriarch of the Sons of Anarchy, did. However, she also realized that it was none of her business.

"I believe in family." Gemma said, shortly.

Anne snorted, not finding Gemma's answer surprising. Gemma did everything to protect her family. Her son, her grandson, the boys at the club...even Wendy, Jax's 'junky' ex-wife counted as family in a weird way.

"Don't you?" Gemma asked, giving Anne a stern look. Probably because she'd snorted at Gemma's response.

Anne's grin melted like snow in the sun, before she shrugged.

"You'd have to have one to believe in one, I guess." she stated as she felt a little uncomfortable, "I ended up in the system. Foster family after foster family. Couldn't really stay at one. You never learn what family really is when you get passed around like that. So no, I don't believe in family."

Gemma's lips narrowed themselves into a thin line, but Anne could tell her eyes were sincere. A look she'd seen in a thousand eyes by now: pity. It's why Anne never told people things like this. She was past the point of pitying.

"Then what do you believe in, girl? You don't pray, you don't believe in family..." Cameron said, though Anne could tell this wasn't a random question. He was tying to gain more intel about her, at least that was what her gut told her.

"Myself." she said as she pushed herself away from the door frame and made her way to the front door.

* * *

Gemma didn't stay long at the cabin. Anne had pressed her for some information about how long they had to stay here, before Gemma told her that returning to Charming was out of the question for now.

"Why?" Anne said, as she walked Gemma to her car.

She couldn't help but feel a little offended. Even though she didn't want to admit it, she kind of missed her daily life at Charming: working in the garage, hanging out with Chibs and the guys, working a job or two sometimes…

Gemma rested her hand on the door of her car, as she looked at Anne. For a moment she pursed her lips before she tilted her head a little to the side.

"The ATF is back in town, lead by this bitch-in-heat, June Stahl." she finally said, "Stahl's not a quitter. We, Clay and I, figured that it would be best to have you up here. You know, with all that has been happening lately."

"You're afraid I'll be a liability." Anne stated, as she crossed her arms, "That I'll rat."

"I never said that." Gemma retorted as she opened the door of her car. She paused for a moment and pushed it closed again, as she turned to Anne.

"Listen. Stahl has been pressuring Donna and me for information about SAMCRO. Luann got arrested for possession of drugs. We both know that's bullshit, but it seems she's after every woman that has something to do with the MC. With that… 'occasional' side job of yours, I figured it would be best to hide you out here, instead getting your ass into jail for whatever she can dig up about you… and trust me Anne, she's thorough and sneaky. She got Hale on the palm of her hand."

"What about Unser?" Anne asked as she tried to process all the information.

"Unser doesn't give a rat's ass about that bitch. Of course he wants her out of Charming but it's not that easy. Or so he says." Gemma said with a roll of her eyes before she plucked the sunglasses from her face.

"Either way, staying here is my best option now." Anne concluded, finishing Gemma's train of thought.

"Sweetheart, before you know it, it'll be over." Gemma said reassuringly, "You'll see."

Gemma quickly put away her sunglasses and reopened the door of her car, sliding into the driver's seat and turning on her headlights.

Anne sighed as she watched Gemma drive away from the cabin. ATF in town was bad news, for her and the club. And if this Stahl was anything like Gemma had described, it wasn't a woman who gave up easily.

"Shit." she grumbled as she turned her back to the road and walked back to the porch.

From her pocket, she took a cigarette and a lighter. Her hand brushed against the cool surface of her burner. She took her phone from her pocket and looked at it for a moment, weighing the thoughts and new found information in her mind. Lighting her cigarette, she tossed the lighter in her hands, up and down. Her eyes stared at the bare sky, that slowly started to show the faint dots of stars. It was getting late.

She exhaled before she made up her mind, taking her phone out of her pocket and dialing Chibs' number. It rang a couple of times before her heart flew up to her throat.

"Hello?"

"It's me." she said quietly.

"Aye, lass. How's the cabin?"

Anne grinned, hearing his familiar accent and gruff voice was better than she'd expected. It was comforting, even though there was quite some distance between them. Still, Anne couldn't help but think that it would suffice for now.

They talked a lot. Anne told him about the days at the cabin, he told her about the daily life at Charming. She tried to talk him into telling her how the retaliation went, when she and Half-Sack left for the cabin, but Chibs' wouldn't let loose besides a short 'it's been taken care of'. She figured it would be too deep into club business to share, even though it was _about_ her. Maybe some things were better left unspoken. And so she just listened to his short run down of some issues at the garage.

"I wish I was back already." Anne said with a grin as she lit her fourth cigarette of the phone call, "Sounds like Gemma could use some help with the paperwork. Has Lowell come back yet? Gemma told me Clay took his ass to rehab a week ago."

"Nah, Lowell's gonna stay a couple o' days extra. Wants to make sure he's okay before he returns home to his lad."

Anne nodded, though she forgot for a moment that Chibs' couldn't see that. Lowell was a good guy, if he stayed away from the crack. He was a good mechanic at least and it seemed that Clay was fond of him. She rolled her newly lit cigarette between her thumb and forefinger, a little absentmindedly before she smiled again.

"Chibs?"

"Aye, lass."

"Thanks for the dice. At least now I have a chance to win back my money, with my own rules."

"Hah! Ye better buy me dinner from those earnings..."

"Who knows..."

Anne grinned before they hung up. She put her phone away as she looked at the burning tip of her cigarette. Something had definitely changed between them, she could sense it. It simmered like the orange colored ashes on the end of her smoke, waiting to be blown to life.

* * *

In the next couple of days, in Gemma's absence, she tried to keep the cabin a bit tidy. The last time she felt kind of embarrassed about the mess she'd allowed Gemma to walk into. She realized that it was up to her, with Cameron still healing and Half-Sack being very young. It seemed the kid didn't cared yet for a clean house. She didn't dare to take a look at his dorm room, certain she'd be disgusted.

Cameron healed pretty well in those days. The meds Gemma had brought for him did their thing and soon enough he was able to walk around a little less wobbly, although she could tell it was still painful. He often grimaced when he strained it by walking too much, or when he made a wrong movement. He didn't complain though. All in all, he seemed very thankful.

Half-Sack was on the phone with Cherry for most of the time. He had been a little panicked when Gemma had called to say that Cherry had been arrested for hitting an ATF officer in the face with a bottle, but Anne soon learned that Jax had found a way to break her out, and she'd be up with them when they came collect Cameron. Still, Half-Sack worried a lot about the girl.

With an amused smile, she watched him walk around the living room of the cabin.

"Relax, they'll be here in an hour or so." she told him as she rolled her lit cigarette in the ashtray on the dining table, watching the ashes crumble from the tip.

"I know, I just..." Half-Sack said as he sighed and sunk down on a nearby chair, "I'm worried the police might snatch them up somewhere, you know? Even so… I'm unhappy about what's going to happen next."

Anne nodded as she exhaled, allowing the air around her to be filled with a blueish-gray smoke.

"Cherry can't stay in the States, Half-Sack." she told him, sounding harsher than she meant to, "There's nothing you can do about that. In fact, you should be happy Cameron is willing to help out by smuggling her with him to Ireland."

Half-Sack just nodded, though be it a little in defeat. She felt sorry for the kid. He'd lost his heart to the Nevada girl and now they had to part ways. Either he had to give up the MC, or her. It was a tough choice, something she knew he didn't take lightly. In the end, the MC won, and so Half-Sack had to say goodbye to his girl.

"I'm sure SAMBEL will look out for her, Half." she told him, trying to be a little reassuringly.

"Yeah, they better." he said as she rolled a cigarette between his fingers, sulking a little.

Anne gave him a weak smile, not sure what to say to him to lift his spirits. Everything in her head seemed to be either depressing or crude. She didn't want to give the kid too much hope. He wanted to stay in Cali, with the club. It was a choice he made for himself.

"You'll be fine too, Half. Just...give it some time..." she said as she killed her smoke in the ashtray before her.

"At least you get to have some time to yourselves. I mean, I don't need that bedroom in the next couple of hours..." Cameron grinned as he placed a hand on Half-Sack's shoulder with a loud smack.

Half-Sack had made some vague quiet comment about not being able to last hours, that made Cameron laugh loudly and Anne shake her head. Even though she'd thought the area of the cabin quite boring, and she was starting to miss Charming, she couldn't deny that the time she'd spend here with Cameron and Half-Sack had been quite intense. In a way she'd grown to like them, though she was still unsure about Cameron.

Now that he was able to walk around more easily again, she made sure Gemma's gun was around her all times. She simply didn't want to take the risk. He made sure to watch her just as much as she watched him, cautiously yet intently. There wasn't really a scientist needed to see that they both didn't really trust each other just yet. Anne wondered if they ever would.

As she was packing her backpack, Anne glanced around herself, before she pulled the gun from the waistband of her jeans. She let it weigh in her hands for a moment, her thoughts trying to make a decision, before she checked the mag and put the safety pal on. The gun lingered in her hands for a moment, before she tucked it back to her waistband, deciding she could give it back to Gemma back at Charming.

Within an hour, the roaring of a couple of motorcycles and a van were heard. Smiling, Half-Sack opened the door and wrapped his arms around the girl that called herself Cherry. The girl had been quick enough to escape the van to spend her last moments in the States with Half-Sack, it seemed. It was adorable, yet heartbreaking, Anne found. She watched as they silently retreated themselves to the bedroom and closed the door. As expected.

Gemma plucked the sunglasses from her nose and put them in her blonde streaked dark locks. She gave the place a look over, but soon decided that Anne had done her best. She gave Cameron a look over, who was bend over his beady necklace once again. Anne shook her head, with a small grin. Living together with this man had told her one thing, as shady as Cameron's business was, he sought his peace with his Lord often enough.

Jax entered the cabin and Anne smile broadly. She hadn't really talked to him in ages, but for some reason she felt at ease when he was around. She waved at him and gestured to the open pack of smokes on the table.

"How you doin', darlin'." Jax said to her as he took her up on her offer and lit the cigarette with his own lighter.

"I'm good. What about yourself? You look tired." she told him as she took a look at his face.

"Just...stuff. Abel's coming home soon, so that's good." Jax said as she gave a genuine smile.

Anne smiled back, just as broad. Abel coming home was a great thing for this family. There had been a lot of worries around this kid, but lots of love as well.

"That's great, Jax." Anne said, "I'm happy for you. Seems now his life can truly begin."

"You know it. Hey, tell you what? Why don't you swing by at the welcoming party? I'd appreciate it." he said.

"Yeah sure, I could make it." Anne said, not sure what she'd done to get an invite to such a personal occasion. She didn't complain though. This once again proved to her that she might be on better terms with the members of the MC than she expected and previously thought.

"Great. Just tell my mom, she'll take care of the groceries with some of the girls." he said before he killed his cigarette, at the sound of more motorcycles.

"Hap! We're inside." Jax said loudly as soon as the engines were turned off.

Happy Lowman turned out to be a broad, intimidating looking, tattoo covered dude that Anne wouldn't want to have a run in at night. His eyes had this piercing yet dead glace over them. Like he was looking at something _through_ you. Though, if you got to know him a little, he actually wasn't all that bad. It was just his appearance and lack of expression that made him kind of…intimidating.

As soon as Gemma warned Cherry and Half-Sack that time was almost over, Anne eagerly grabbed her stuff and walked to the van they had arrived in. She quickly dumped her backpack on the passenger's seat before she helped Cameron down the steps of the porch. It seemed that those were still too much for the man to handle.

Aside from a short 'thank you' from Cameron, he didn't say much. He was eager enough to climb into the van Jax had provided for him and Cherry. Anne felt like she could relax a little again. They were going back to Charming. No more cabin, no more stupid card games, no more babysitting.

Seeing Half-Sack's and Cherry's goodbye though was a little more than sad. Half-Sack was the kind of guy you want to have everything and it just wasn't possible at the moment. It surprised her just how quick it was though. Anne suspected Half-Sack and Cherry had had lots of time to say their goodbyes in the bedroom of the cabin – something she didn't really want to put her mind to.

Together with Gemma, Jax and Half-Sack she waved Happy and other Tacoma chapter members off, escorting the van with Cameron and Cherry, before Anne pushed Half-Sack towards their own van.

"You think she'll be safe?" Half- Sack asked her when she pulled out of their parking spot and followed Jax's motorcycle onto the road.

"Of course. The Tacoma chapter's with her now and SAMBEL when she arrives in Ireland. She'll be fine, Half." Anne said as she leaned back in her seat and watched the road slip away underneath them.

Half-Sack grew silent for a moment as he toyed around with an unlit cigarette. He let it slip through his fingers and caught it just as it was about to fall to the floor of the car.

"You better tell Chibs soon, you know." he suddenly said, out of nowhere, "Who knows what happens. How much time we've all got left… So much can change our plans. One moment you think you have it all, and one moment there's a part missing. It can change so fast, you know?"

"That's some deep shit right there, Half."

"I'm serious! I mean, Cherry and I didn't have that much time, who's to say you and Chibs will?! You tell him, or I will." Half-Sack said, a little anger in his voice.

"Fine! Jesus Christ, Half-Sack." Anne cursed as she made a right turn, steering the van in the direction of the highway, "You'll find someone else at some point. You're a good guy, Half."

"Like you?" he snorted, in jest.

"Fuck off, _Edward_."

* * *

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!


	10. Chapter 10

Hello, all! Here's a new chapter for you. I hope you enjoy it. If you want to let me know what you think, please do: hit the review button or send me a message!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or it's characters. There's a part of a conversation here from one of the episodes, also not owned by me.

* * *

Rolling up the parking lot of Teller-Morrow, Anne put the van in park before she sighed and leaned back in her seat. Checking her reflection in the rear view mirror, she slowly traced the circles under her eyes with the tips of her fingers. The days at the cabin had not been relaxing.

Opening the door of the van, she silently slipped out, reaching back in for her backpack before she closed the door with a loud slam.

Together with Half-Sack she sauntered over the parking lot, towards the clubhouse adorned with the white reapers.

"There we go...You're back!" Tig greeted them with a broad smile and twinkling blue eyes.

He wrapped one of his arms around Anne's shoulders for a moment and gave Half-Sack a loud smack on his shoulder.

Anne grinned a little. Feeling slightly awkward at the welcome he gave her, she couldn't deny the feeling that it was also somewhat… warming.

"Everything went OK?" Tig asked them.

"Yeah, no problem at all." Anne said, putting her backpack on one of the tables, "I'm happy to be back though. It was a little too quiet up there."

"Well, don't count yourself lucky yet," Tig said grimly, "ATF's still looking for something to catch us on. Heard they might try RICO."

"RICO?" Anne said, frowning.

"Yeah, some law that not only fucks us over, but everyone we work with. Basically."

"Shit." Anne spat, knowing that meant her too, "How does that work exactly?"

"No idea. We just gotta lay low for a while, you know, just in case..." Tig said as he offered her a smoke.

Which meant she couldn't work a side job or two to make some extra money. After all, she was staying at the MC's clubhouse. If something were to be revealed about her 'activities', it'd blow back on SAMCRO. That was the last she wanted.

Putting the offered smoke between her lips, she accepted Tig's lighter.

"So how have things been here?" she asked, as she exhaled, in a desperate attempt to change the subject to something normal… as far as normal went here.

Tig shrugged, trying to pass her question by not saying a lot at all. To her, it said enough.

"The usual, you know?" he said, "Life's never peace and quiet here."

"I figured." Anne said, with a small grin, "Wouldn't it be boring if it would?

Tig grinned. Together they sat in silence for a moment, watching the mechanics of Teller-Morrow go about their business.

* * *

She threw her backpack on her bed and sunk down next to it. Even though the room was small and kind of empty, it kind of felt like she was 'back'. It was a thousand times better than staying at the cabin. At leas tonight she could lie down properly, without having to curl up. She could toss in turn in her bed all she wanted.

She started to unpack slowly, putting the small amount of items she owned in their respective places. Her clothes in the hamper, in the bathroom and her make up on the counter. Even though it were just small every day items, they made her at least feel like it was somehow 'her' room. Right now, making extra money for decorations and such was out of the question, so this had to make do.

Her hands folded themselves around the dice Chibs had given her. A small smile played on her lips as she turned the small box in her hands. It wasn't the dice itself that made her smile like that, rather the gesture itself.

It had been sweet of Chibs, even though she knew in the back of her mind that it didn't had to mean anything. At least not to him. To her though, it meant a lot.

Growing up in multiple foster homes never really taught Anne to get attached to people, or people to her. She'd always tried to keep a certain distance between her and others. And the older she got, the easier it became. Putting up walls became a second nature to her. To only depend on herself, not to trust others.

Needless to say, being passed around from one foster family to the next didn't really gave time and moments for personalized gifts. She'd spend more birthdays alone than with 'family' and Christmas never seemed to mean anything to her. The gifts she did get lost meaning whenever her current foster family put her back in the system because the lost interest, patience or simply because she didn't 'fit in' anymore.

With a faint smile, she put the small box of dice on the desk at the wall. Hiding it in a closet didn't feel right.

Returning to her backpack, her hands found their way to the last item, on the bottom of her bag: Gemma's gun. It was cool to the touch and weighed heavily in her hands. She let her eyes glide over the sharp outlines of the weapon before she sighed.

It was time to give it back to Gemma and she was relieved that she could. Inside SAMCRO's headquarters, she didn't need it. Not with all the members around. Right?

A knock on her door disturbed her from her thoughts. Her eyes fell from the gun to the owned, who smiled at her.

"Good. I was just going to return it to you." Anne said as she turned around and held out the weapon to Gemma.

"That's okay, sweetheart. You should keep it. For emergencies." Gemma answered.

Anne frowned a little, not really satisfied with Gemma's rejection, but there was something about the Matriarch's look that told Anne it wasn't up for discussion. So, slightly reluctantly, she put it on her nightstand.

"What do you want, Gemma?" she asked as she put away her backpack as well.

"Just checking up on you. You look tired as hell." Gemma said, way too casually, as she strolled into Anne's room.

"Yeah, I figure I'll be sleeping like a baby tonight. That cabin was way too remote for my own good."

Gemma gave a small laugh as she paused at the desk and picked up the little box with dice.

Anne watched her every move closely, and Gemma noticed it. With a small smile she put the box down. Anne didn't like the smile on Gemma's face, it was clear to see that there was something behind it.

"Chibs gave you that, didn't he?" she said, though Anne was a 100% sure it was a rhetorical question.

When Anne didn't answer, Gemma leaned against the desk and crossed her arms.

"I'd never thought Chibs would fall for a type like you. Though, now that I got to know you, I'm not surprised. Pretty but with a brain and not scared to do what she must in order to survive." she stated.

Despite the small jump of her heart at the statement, Anne watched Gemma even more closely. Be it true or not, she was grasping at straws as to what this woman's deal was.

"Chibs has always been a bit of a loner. A broken man, when he came here… He had his fun with common floozies here and there but I could tell that that wasn't what he was after." Gemma continued, taken Anne's silence as an encouragement.

"I've been watching some time now, and I gotta say that I've seen a side of him I haven't seen in quite a long while."

"Meaning?" Anne asked, trying to see if Gemma was going somewhere with this all.

"Meaning he cares for you, sweetheart." she said, "And I can see you care for him too. You're trying to hide it, I see that as well, but nothing gets past me."

Gemma detached herself from the desk and looked Anne straight in the eyes. There was something about that wicked smile of hers, added with that amused look that made Anne a little hesitant. Something she thought the woman could look right though her.

"He's a good man, if you'd give him the chance."

"Gemma, I don't know what matchmaking scheme you're playing but I can make decisions for myself." Anne sighed.

"I'm not scheming anything, honey, Just stating the obvious."

"Sure you are." Anne snorted, not knowing how to react to that.

"You know I'm right. But fine, its you choice… Just know this-" Gemma said as her voice dropped lower, "-...hurt him, or any of the other boys, and you'd wish you'd taken that rental car the first day you got here. Got that?"

Anne raised her eyebrows, trying to pretend she was unimpressed, but on the inside of her chest, she felt that messing with this woman was the worst thing she could do.

"Now come, let's have a drink and pick a color for Abel's nursery, before he comes home." Gemma said, suddenly lighter again, "I'm getting sick and tired of the eternal dark suggestions of the men. It'd be good to have some female input."

* * *

And so, not much later, Anne found herself at the bar with Gemma, hunched over some color swaps and a bill of painters. With all due respect, Anne couldn't figure out why Gemma, or Jax himself, couldn't pain the nursery themselves and same some money with that, but she knew better than to question the Matriarch's way by now.

The bar area was pretty quiet for a change, only the regular members present. Juice was looking at a laptop screen, with a beer in his hand and Chibs, Bobby, Tig and Clay were wrapped up in a game of pool. Something she wasn't going to disturb them from. It turned out Chibs had a small temper himself when he was about to lose a game. It made her smile a little.

She still hadn't thanked him in person for the dice, but she found that she was also postponing it. Anne just didn't know what to say to him, and thanking him for something as simple as dice was a bit weird right? There was just so much so wanted to tell him, ask him. She just wanted to hang around him all the time.

"I like this color." Gemma said as she held up a paper with a basic blue. The kind every boy nursery probably had.

"It's a little common though. What about green?" Anne said as she picked a lighter shade of green from the pile, called 'Apples'.

"Green is for pussies." Gemma snorted as she took a sip of her beer, before she turned her head to Clay, who just closed his phone.

"Luann's in the clear." he told Gemma, "Otto not so much."

"Why? What did he do?" Tig asked curiously as he leaned on his cue.

Anne could tell, even from the distance that she was in the room, the guys were genuinely worried for one another. It didn't matter if they were on the inside or the outside, as they called it. They were brothers and it showed.

"Shattered Stahl's face." Clay said with a low chuckle, soon joined by triumphiclaughter and awe's of amazement from the rest.

"Oh, I love that guy!" Tig said as he turned around and resumed his game with Chibs and Bobby.

Anne frowned, trying to dig up where she'd heard that name before, when she remembered Gemma warning her for Stahl. Apparently she had been pressuring the women of SAMCRO to rat about the business of the MC. Donna, Gemma, Tara...even Cherry, who had to leave the States because of it.

Gemma quickly told her she was going to run the bill by Clay, so Anne could relax a little. Gemma felt like a watchful, smothering queen sometimes. The boys carried her on their hands and adored her, but to Anne Gemma was scary. The woman figured out way too much about her by just observing her, or asking the right questions. In a different life, Anne guessed Gemma could've made great sheriff.

"So, who's winning?" she decided to ask Chibs, Tig and Bobby, as she approached them.

"Well I can tell you who's losing..."Tig said, with a broad teasing grin, "...but I want to keep my head, thank you very much."

"Aye, ye cheating! Both of ye!" Chibs growled as he struck at Tig with his cue.

Bobby and Anne just laughed before Juice slammed his laptop closed and shouted "Clay! Cops!". Immediately the door swung open against the glass panel, shattering it on impact, sending pieces of sharp glass everywhere. Figures in black with guns, helmets and flashlights entered the clubhouse, aiming at all of them while they shouted for them to get down on the ground.

Anne was confused for a moment before she felt a gloved hand grab her by her collar and push her down to the wooden floor. Her cheek scraped across the floor, as the person above her used much more force than was needed.

"Hands above your head, on the floor!" the man dressed in black told her.

"You know, it would go easier if you'd loosen up a little." Anne retorted as she tried to move her hands above her.

"Shut up, bitch."

"Aye, ye be nice to the lady now!" Chibs told the officer above her, with a small grin.

His sunglasses were askew on his nose and his dark eyes looked at the officer that held her down with a mixture of amusement and anger. Anne didn't know which emotion would win that internal struggle in the end, but she couldn't help but grin a little.

She looked around her, as much as she could, just in time to catch sight of Gemma getting kicked in her stomach by one of the officers, before a woman with straight blonde hair warned her about her manners. There was a patch on her nose which told Anne there was only one possibility of this woman's identity.

"Now, who's this? I thought the bar was closed for your basic hookers today?" Stahl said as she stopped at Anne's face.

Anne grinned a little before she spat on the ground.

"Do I look like a common whore to you? You gotta do your homework better."

"You're someone's old lady, as they call it here?" Stahl said, surprise entwined in her voice.

"No." Anne retorted, but she could see the confusion and panic in Stahls eyes for a moment, who seemed to weigh down the possibility of not having manipulated every woman of SAMCRO.

"Then you have no use for me." Stahl decided, unimpressed, before she turned around. Her lips were pressed into a thin line and her look made it seem like she was incredibly mad. Anne couldn't blame her, with a nose like that.

With one gesture of her hand, Stahl told the other officers to let them go, while they took Bobby with them. The officer on Anne gave her a small extra push into the floor before he released her.

Blowing the strands of hair from her face as she stood back up on her feet, Anne watched as the door closed behind the officers and they were left dumbfounded in the mess the ATF had made.

"Ye okay, lass?" Chibs asked her as he put his bend sunglasses on the pool table, "Ye bleeding."

"Again?" Anne asked as she clawed at her shoulder, only to discover it was dry and unharmed.

"No, on ye face. C'me here. Probably a piece o' glass, or something." Chibs said as he rubbed his thumb across the trails of red on her cheek.

"Thanks, I'll clean it later… You okay?"

"Oh yeah, no worries, lass. Sunglasses are fucked but what can ye do, eh?" he sighed as he shrugged and checked on the others.

Anne quickly moved to do the same and helped Gemma on a bar stool. Even though she was a weary of the Matriarch, that didn't meant she wasn't going to help her when she was in pain.

"Are you okay?" Anne asked as she gave Gemma a glass of water.

"Just peachy." Gemma answered, sourly, "Bitch needs to be taken down a notch. What was this all about, Clay?"

But Clay stayed silent as he bend himself over the bar and seemed to gather his thoughts. He didn't tell them anything but called out to the guys something about a 'chapel' and disappeared to the other side of the building, where he closed the door behind him.

Chapel, Chibs had told her sometimes, had been a term to call an (emergency)meeting about the club and it's business. So Bobby's arrest had something to do with that. Was RICO already working? Did that mean she was going to be a target as well?

* * *

"Shit." Anne sighed as she lowered the towel in her hands.

The events of today didn't let her loose just yet. She'd hoped for something quiet tonight. Something that would made her sleep like a baby, like she'd told Gemma. But of course, shit had to go down again and ruin her plans.

She inspected the lacerations on her face, made by the shattered glass when the cops invaded the clubhouse. It wasn't deep but it messed with her looks.

Throwing her towel to the side, she quickly grabbed a shirt and pulled it over her head. Her pale reflection stared back at her, with tousled hair and a bloody scratch on her right cheek. Anne had seen better days.

Sauntering to her bed, she let herself fall on it, covering herself with all the blankets on it. She closed her eyes and tried to let sleep catch her into its soft and lulling arms...

… but after an hour she still couldn't sleep.

She was worried. About what would happen to Bobby, about her own safety, everything really. Besides that, the past events still came up in the back of her head. The Mayans were probably still out there looking for her. They knew she was in Charming and the retaliation probably linked her to the Sons of Anarchy. As much as she wanted to leave this dangerous place, she just didn't see it happen. Not alive.

And besides that there was still Chibs. For some reason her heart had sold itself to the man. He was funny, protective, charming, handsome…

Anne rolled on her back, staring up at the ceiling as he listened at the quiet sounds around her. For once it was fairly quiet at the clubhouse. Normally there would be some music in the background, laughing members and cooing women, but tonight it was silent.

Flipping back the blankets, Anne put her feet on the ground and opened the door to the hallway. Not all the lights had been killed but without anyone there to enjoy them, they kind of lost their warmth. Anne made her way over to the kitchen, preparing the same drink Bobby had made her the last time she couldn't sleep.

Poor Bobby… She wondered if he was okay at wherever he was. She'd heard some crazy stories about prisons and their gangs. It would be terrible if something happened to him while he was in that shit.

And then there was Stahl… Anne's lips twisted themselves into a frown as she thought about the blonde haired bitch. No wonder Gemma had no love for her, the woman was ruthless. She supposed that it fitted her position and job but Anne didn't feel sorry for the woman and her broken nose. The way Stahl had interacted with her didn't sit right with Anne, but on the other hand, it seemed that she had flown right under Stahl's radar. For now.

Walking back to her room, Anne pushed open her door with her foot. She crawled upon the chair at her desk and lit a cigarette while she let her chocolate cool. Exhaling with a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair.

She wasn't sure what to do to make herself sleep anymore. Usually she had no problem, catching an hour or two on the train or in a stolen car, but for some reason she couldn't anymore. The constant worry and uneasy was gnawing at her like a rat.

"Can't sleep, lass?"

Anne almost had a heart attack as she whirled around in her chair and sighed relieved. She'd forgotten to close the door behind her when she'd walked in.

"Jesus, man. Knock first?" she asked as she killed her cigarette.

"I figured ye heard me." Chibs said casually as he entered her room and sat on the chair in the corner, after he wiped her jeans from it.

"What's up? You don't look too good." Anne said as she turned to look at him.

"Just… stuff."

"Club business?" she asked as he closed the door and moved to sit on her bed, across Chibs.

"Aye..."

"You know you can tell me, right? If you want to, that is."

"That's the problem, lass. I want to, I really do, but I can't. Ye not suppose to know about these kind of things." Chibs said as he sighed and leaned back in his seat, "The less ye know, the better it is."

"True, but I can see something's up." Anne said, a little softer this time.

When Chibs didn't react to that, she just sighed and sipped the drink she had made earlier on. She held out her cup to Chibs, who shook his head.

"Bobby's drinks are a bit too sweet for me, lass." he said, "I'll fetch something from the bar."

And with that he stood up and disappeared for a moment. Anne watched as he walked out the door and looked at the cup of hot cocoa with whiskey. As much as she wanted to pretend she didn't like it, it was delicious. Bobby had been right, it calmed the mind a little and made her feel warm inside. Though she couldn't help but feel like it was a little childish. Besides that last time, she hadn't had hot cocoa after when she had been 11 years old.

Chibs soon returned with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He poured himself one before he downed it. Anne looked up from her, now empty, cup and watched him sit in that chair. There was something about him that gave the impression that he was lost. He looked like he hadn't slept in a day or two, and the frowns of worry were starting to show themselves more prominently on his forehead.

After she put away her empty cup, Chibs handed her a glass of whiskey, which she sipped happily. For an hour they kept drinking and talking. Two restless souls joined by a bottle of liquor in the dead of the night. They played card games and dice games to kill the time, as the bottle of whiskey became emptier and emptier.

After a while the lust to play games became less, and Anne's head was spinning from the booze and insomnia. She let herself fall back on her sheets and looked up at the ceiling. There were so many things she wanted to ask him. So many subjects she wanted to talk about, but knew she shouldn't. They were either off limits because of club business, or too personal.

"Why are you here, Chibs?" she finally asked, internally cursing herself she did.

"I couldn't sleep, just like yourself." Chibs said as he sipped the last drops of whiskey from the bottle.

His head leaned against the wall, pillows tucked behind his back as he tapped the ashes from his cigarette in a nearby ashtray.

"But why here? Why not stay at the bar, or bug Juice?" Anne asked.

She didn't know why she was asking him all this, all of a sudden. It was still personal but there was this whirlwind of curiosity that she couldn't contain anymore. She knew things had changed between them. It was the way she looked at him. Maybe he looked at her the same way, but was that even possible? She was way too young for him, right?

All she did know was that she needed answered. Letting her feelings swim like this was making her insane. She wanted to be near to him, as close as she could get. He made her feel safe with his presence. His scent was calming. There was something about this Scot, since the first couple of days she met him, that she found so...intriguing.

"I just…needed to see ye. For some reason ye know exactly what I need. I can relax a little." he finally said, after he gave it some thought.

Anne hummed for a moment as she counted her heartbeats, silently, in the back of her mind. They were increasing with the moment.

Lying down had been a mistake, Anne discovered at some point. It made her head more dizzy than it had already been and she felt like her heart was pounding in her head from all the tension and excitement.

She sat back up and looked at Chibs. Moments later she'd convince herself that it was the booze that made her do this. It wasn't her. She never would've if she had been sober.

Anne closed in on Chibs, plucked the cigarette from his lips and killed it in the ashtray. For a moment her green eyes locked with his dark ones before she leaned in and pressed her lips against his. He responded immediately by pulling her closer and entangling his hands in her hair.

It became hard to breathe for her. She felt like she was on fire, hot burning coals pumped through her veins. As she tried to silence the protesting voice in her head, her kisses started to become more hungry by the moment. His scent made of leather, cigarettes and heavy aftershave, engulfed her and wrapped her in its soft caress as she tried to figure out just how far she could push this.

As she broke for air, she felt Chibs' hands on her waist, lifting her for a moment to throw her on the other end of the bed as he undid himself of the cutte and his shirt.

Chibs wasn't overly muscular, it was something Anne knew by just looking at him, but she didn't mind his body at all. It was more mature, experienced. It knew how to respond to her every move.

As he pressed down on to her and recaptured her lips, she moaned a little as his hand snaked up to her shirt and pressed it upward, revealing her stomach. The skin of his hands were calloused, like a man's, though nimble enough to undo the buttons that held her shirt together at the front. He exposed her tits with ease and she couldn't ignore the small grin that played on his lips as he looked at her.

Anne lifted herself a little, to press her lips uon his one more time. She wanted to enjoy his scent, his touch even more. As she let her hands glide over his shoulders and his arms, she almost couldn't contain her own excitement. She grinned through her kiss, before she pushed him back on the pillows and started to undo them both of their pants.

With a swift movement, Anne made a short trip to bathroom to pick up one of the condoms that she'd bought ages ago. She quickly ripped the wrapper before she rolled it down on his member, who surprisingly to her, was slightly bigger than she'd expected it to be.

They were far too distracted with one another to even think about talking. She bit her bottom lip as she lowered herself upon his dick and moaned a little as he grabbed a hold of her waist again, his grip much more tighter this time than before.

She wrapped her hands around his arms as he moved up and down on him, biting down on her lip as she tried to keep her voice down. Now that it was quiet at the clubhouse, the last she wanted was waking up all the guys with her moaning.

It felt like the heat inside her body was trying to consume her with its flames. She felt like she could explode every moment, like she was going to reach her limit soon. To her it had been a while.

"Shite, lass, I think I-" Chibs groaned as he pushed deeper into her.

"Jesus, fuck."

Anne dug her nails in Chibs' arms as she closed her eyes and tried to muffle her own moans with one of her hands as she rode out the wave of pleasure that had came way too soon. She could feel Chibs chuckle before he gathered her up in her arms and finished soon himself.

Anne let her head rest against his shoulder as they fell back on the bed. Her green eyes searched his dark ones before she let out a small chuckle. She moved off him and gathered herself in the blankets around, trying to catch her breath as she watched him light a cigarette, putting one arm around her.

He stayed that night and it was the best sleep Anne had since a long while. No more use for borrowed sweaters or guns underneath pillows. His steady breathing and the arm around her waist were the best ways to calm her worries and feel protected.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think!


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